


Other reality, same love.

by Justsomeone99



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Allura is still dead, Defenders of Tomorrow AU, Female Pronouns for Pidge | Katie Holt, Getting Together, I Don't Even Know, Kinda, M/M, Non English Speaker, POV Keith (Voltron), POV Lance (Voltron), Pining Keith (Voltron), S8 spoilers, Sad Lance (Voltron), Why Did I Write This?, after s8, but just in the beginning, canon Leakira
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-10
Updated: 2019-01-31
Packaged: 2019-10-07 13:03:26
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 13
Words: 39,302
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17366357
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Justsomeone99/pseuds/Justsomeone99
Summary: “Hey guys… I think… I think we are not where we are supposed to” She sounded scared, like really, really scared, that put everybody on alert.“What do you mean, Pidge?” Shiro was in the Atlas, trying to speak calm, but there was this concerned tone, not just about the thing Pidge just said.“This… this is not our reality”OrAfter restoring all the realities, the remain paladins land in the incorrect reality, where alteans are the bad guys, there are mindless slaves, and some guys that look just like them that are part of a resistance against the alteans, so now they have to figure how to go back home and maybe help this reality to get free of the alteans.OrKeith have this massive crush on Lance, but he can't do anything about it (because Allura have just died) but he is stuck in this reality when he sees Leandro and Akira in love and happy, and can’t help want that.





	1. Another reality

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! I finished season 8 I didn't like the end a lot, so I get this crazy idea that they didn't end in the correct reality (I'm using the reality of the S3 E4, combined with Defenders of Tomorrow), then a little Leakira, and well... this is the result.  
> (I learned english, so if something is wrong I'm so sorry I don't have a beta reader in this moment ;n;)

Another reality 

After saving all the realities and losing Allura, the team wasn’t really good, they have won, but at what cost? No one believed it was really worth it in this moment, especially Lance. He really wishes that it had been another way to solve all, he would gladly give his life instead of hers, but he hadn’t any magic, nothing that could help in that moment, he just stood there crying, useless. He watched Blue, drifting away, without a paladin to pilot her, without the love of his life. Probably he was very busy slumping that he didn’t realize that there was something wrong. Until Pidge announce it.  
“Hey guys… I think… I think we are not where we are supposed to” She sounded scared, like really, really scared, that put everybody on alert.  
“What do you mean, Pidge?” Shiro was in the Atlas, trying to speak calm, but there was this concerned tone, not just about the thing Pidge just said.  
“This… this is not our reality”  
Silence, no one knew how to take that, no one knew what had happened, and no one dare to ask. He started to look around him, there where just stars around them, no balmeras, no devil robeast, no traces of Haggar’s portal, not even a planet, just nothing, just empty space.  
“How the hell that happened?” Keith said really slowly through the coms, like he didn’t believe it.   
“It’s possibly that after restoring the realities, we just landed in the wrong one” Hunk was trying to sound analytical, but it was obvious that he was freaking out.  
“How do we get back?” He wasn’t in the mood to hear more stuff, he just wanted to go back home, crash in his bed and cry, maybe for hours, or just sleep, to forget that she was gone “The same way as before?”  
“You have travel to other realities, before?” Oh right, Shiro didn’t knew that, about that other reality when his name was Sven and he was best friends with Slav.   
“Actually, now that you mention it, I have seen these readings before, we are in that reality, the one with the comet, remember?” The only thing in the world that didn’t want to hear, if they were in that reality, in would mean that there were going to be a lot of alteans, and he really didn’t want to deal with alteans in the moment.   
“Oh no! We are stuck in a reality with the evil alteans” Hunk was panicking.  
“Evil alteans?” Shiro was so confused.  
“They made the entire universe their mindless slaves, or well almost the entire universe” Keith explained quickly.   
“But what if by now is the entire universe? We haven’t been here forever! They might capture us! We could become mindless slaves!” Hunk was definitely panicking.  
“I can find any traces from the point we enter this reality, if I can´t find it, we might never get back home!” Things were bad, really bad if even Pidge was freaking out. “Shiro? could you pass me my father, he might know what to do”   
“I don´t thing I can Pidge… the Atlas is empty, I´m the only one here” Now that he mentions it, the Atlas was kind of suspended, maybe rotating a little, but it looked completely shut down, more bad stuff.  
“What are we going to do then? We can’t just stay here and wait for some evil alteans to find us” It was impressive that Keith could remind semi-calm in this situation.  
“We are close to earth, maybe it hasn’t already been invaded by evil alteans, and maybe there are people there that can help us!”   
They started to move, the lions slowly moving, they were still hurt for the battle, but Lance didn’t move red, he just stare at Blue, they couldn’t leave her, but he didn’t wanted to pilot her, that felt wrong, it didn’t matter that it was his lion before, he just couldn’t do that, he felt Red in his mind, trying to comfort him, but it wasn’t really working. Shiro exit the Atlas, and he was going into the Black lion, it was also painful having to leave the Atlas, but they didn’t have a choice, it was a huge ship, and without power, no force in this universe could make it work or move. In the end, they decided to put a tracer on the Atlas, and pray that no one would find it, and if someone did, that they couldn’t be able to get in it, least pilot it. But the blue lion was still there.  
“…ance, Lance, can you hear me?” It was Keith through a private com.  
“Yeah, sorry, what is it?” He was begging internally, it was apparent that everybody had realize the fact that they couldn’t just leave the blue lion there, but he didn’t want to pilot her, but he knew that if there was no other option, he will do it, if Keith asked him, he will do it, but he was begging that he didn’t ask that.   
“We can’t leave a lion out here…” He felt a pain in his chest, he was going to ask it, wasn’t he? “Any ideas of how to move a lion without a pilot?” He was surprised, he didn’t expect that, and why was Keith asking him that in private?  
“Maybe… we can put her in the middle, two of us will push her and the other will drag her” It was going to look like they were protecting her, he felt a sob climbing by his throat.  
“Good idea, I tell the others” It seemed like he wanted to ask something else, say something, but the line went dead after that.   
Slowly the moved, so Hunk and Lance would be pushing Blue, and Pidge and Keith were going to drag here. They started to move, going to Earth, just that it wasn’t Earth, at least not the one that they know. He felt Red take control, like if she was silent telling him to rest, but he was afraid, at first thought that sleeping will be the best, but now he was mostly certain that his dreams will be plagued with Allura, with the fact that she was gone, that he couldn’t do anything to save her, he was afraid of the things his own mind could fabricate. So, he decided to stay awake, hearing Hunk and Pidge discuss methods to go back home, and Keith telling Shiro all about this reality, he just stayed quiet, and no one bother him at all, he was grateful for that, he didn´t feel like talking.   
After some hours they saw their solar system, Neptune, Uranus, Saturn… this time they couldn’t leave the lions behind, they would have to bring them to Earth, they stopped in Mars, where the altean satellites where very visible, on this reality, Earth was taken by the evil alteans.  
“What do we do now?” Hunk asked. There were a few battle ships, but they didn’t look active, it was like if they were parking in the middle of space.  
“We have to land, maybe there are humans there, that are no mind slaves, and we can help them, and they can help us” Pidge sounded rather optimistic.  
“Or we could be handing us to an evil altean army of human slaves” Shiro said, not really convinced of the idea of going to Earth.   
“We have to try, is our only choice right know, we can go there with the cloaking devices, it will be less likely that the spot us”   
After Keith gave the order four lions became invisible, just the one that was in the middle didn’t do a thing, again, they couldn’t leave her there, it was even more risky there, because the evil alteans were close, Lance started to resign, he was going to have to go over there and activate the device, he knew that no one will force him, but maybe they will try to convince him, and he really didn’t want that, he started to get up when he felt her, it was Blue presence in her mind, she felt sad, she was mourning but at the same time, he could feel her try to cheer him up, just a little, it felt like a mental hug. He closed his eyes, so he could focus entirely on her, she was there, waiting, asking what he wanted her to do, he thought of the cloaking device and then…  
“Whoa! Did Blue just active the cloaking device by herself?” Pidge was really impressed.  
“I don’t think so…” Keith knew, obviously he knew “But now we can move”  
They went slowly, they didn’t want Blue getting away while they were getting through the atmosphere, Earth was different, altean buildings were everywhere, but also a lot of human buildings, there were sentries everywhere, on the streets, but no sign of humans, maybe there were no longer humans… An explosion caught their attention, two hooded forms where fighting some sentries, the taller one, had two guns in his hands, and it was shooting merciless, the other one, shorter, was driving something that looked like a car, just that it didn’t have a roof, and the wheels where on the pavement, that thing was floating. She was also furiously tapping something in a tablet. Finally, all the sentries died, the guy with the guns, raised his arms in a victory sign, they follow them, because they were humans, and they were fighting. The hooded people arrived at something that looked like some kind of old deposit. The lions were close to them, they were about to land when suddenly everything stopped.   
“Pidge, what is happening!?” Keith asked.  
“We seem to have been trapped in some kind of retractor beam, we are being pull to that deposit” She was trying to get her lion to escape but it wasn´t working.  
“Should we just let them continue, maybe they are friendly” Hunk propose, but nobody felt like trying that.  
They hit ground to quickly, the lions couldn’t move, and the cloaking failed, they were now completely exposed. The hooded people were walking to them.   
“Everybody out, we are going to try to talk to them, but keep your bayards close” Keith order.  
They got out fast, ready for a confrontation.  
“Told ya, four persons” The smaller figure was talking.  
“You cheated, having the thing that reads biorhythms is cheating, how was I supposed to know that there was an empty ship”   
“I didn’t use it! Just saw that their formation was weird and deduce it!” They were arguing, that they didn´t seem to notice that there were five of them.  
“Because you could see them! That’s cheating! I was only able to calculate how many ships were with the slight perturbation that their cloaking did!”  
“It was a really shitty cloaking” After all that they finally return their sight to the front, the tall hooded, cheer.  
“I told you! Five persons, you own me Katie” In that moment something clicked on them, the voices of this strange humans weren’t that strange, it was as if they heard them before.   
“Shut up you idiot, you can just scream my name in front of five strangers, we don’t even know why are they here! Why are you here!?” She screamed, and looked pretty annoyed.  
“This is going to sound crazy, but we are from another reality, and we are here to help and probably ask for your help to get back home” Keith said, the hooded didn’t seem dangerous so far.  
“No way…” The taller figure, revealed his face, Lance was taken aback, the guy looked just like him, just with shorter hair, more curly, freckles and had a lot of piercings like three in one ear, and another two in the other one, there was also the fact that one of his eyes was yellow or brown he couldn’t really be sure from the distance, but for everything else it was like him, same height, same face, same voice “Katie look, he is just like Akira!”  
“Leandro what in the world are you doing!?” The girl shouted, desperate “You can just approach anyone that looks like your boyfriend, in fact that would have to make you more suspicious”  
“But look! Dude, could you please take your helmet off?” Everyone took the bayards, this stranger weird human that looked a lot like Lance was too close to Keith.  
“Stay back” Shiro said, his altean hand ready to strike.  
“Whoa chill… I just wanted to prove Katie that your friend here is identical to my boyfriend, but relax we are not going to do anything to you” If it was any other time, Lance would have perhaps been more concern about the fact that his doppelganger was dating Keith doppelganger.   
“We are not?” The girl revealed herself, and unsurprising it was Pidge, if she was more badass in her clothe selection, and had decided that her hair wasn’t short enough, she also had piercings, three in her ear and one in her mouth, she had smaller glasses. “I don´t trust anyone that look like me”  
“You brother is like your copy Katie, and you trust him” He said with a ‘duh’ tone.  
“That’s not the point here” She was suddenly pointing a gun to them “Look at them, carefully, they had altean technology, worst they had an altean with them”  
An altean? Lance was very confused, has Allura spirit suddenly appear or something. No one of them looked like an altean, but this girl, Katie was looking at him, like she wanted him ten meters underground.   
“No way! My clone is an altean!” He sounded scared, and his voice carried so much hatred, the two pistols back in his hands. “But how? I don’t want to be evil in any reality”  
“What are you saying, I’m no altean, I’m human” He looked at his teammates, but all of them appeared to have noticed something in him, something that hasn’t been there before.  
“Lance… you have, altean marks” Keith said, he looked uncomfortable, like he had already known, probably because he did.  
“What!? That´s impossible” He summoned his shield, looked at the reflection, and there where two altean marks in his cheeks, the same ones that Allura had, just that his were blue when hers had been pink. He started crying, his feet no loger holding him, he just collapsed, Hunk was by his side immediately.  
“Wait, wait… What…? Why…? Katie why is he crying?” He was concerned, but she was as lost as he was. “He didn´t know he was an altean or something?” Leandro was searching answers in the crying guy teammates, but all of them looked tired, and sad, and just in so much misery.  
“I can see what are you thinking, and the answer is no” Katie said, but the other guy just started to make random movements, like if he was trying to say ‘Look how they are, we can just leave them here, c’mon’ after a few minutes of silent discussion, they reached a decision.  
“You are coming with us, is not safe to be outside too long, we figure it this out, together”   
Leandro spoke softly, like he understood what have they been through. Katie activated the cloaking again, but without failing to say that it was terrible, Pidge just grunted at her, not wanting to start a discussion in that moment. The paladins follow the other two to the deposit, Lance had stood up, but was still using Hunk as a support, still all had their bayard in their hands, just without transformed them, they didn´t know what was expecting them in that deposit.


	2. They are in love

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith starts to freaking out about everything, this reality, the new people, his feelings and even his thoughts.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I decided to write all I can before I became a coward and just drop it all. Again, sorry for mistakes, my beta-reader didn't want to read this because is not her ship :(

They are in love  
Keith didn’t understand a single thing of what had been happening for the last hours, one second he was fighting against a crazy witch, saving realities in an upgraded Voltron, and in the next moment he was stuck in an other reality, princess Allura was dead, Lance was sad, an army of evil alteans had taken earth, and when he thought that nothing could be more weird, two strangers that looked scarily similar to Lance and Pidge, had appeared of nowhere. They hadn’t been in that other reality for more than a few hours, and he had already developed a headache.  
In the end he had accepted the offer of a refuge of the Leandro guy, his team was tired and they couldn’t stand a confrontation against anything right now. Despite all that he couldn’t let his guards down, he didn’t know if this stranger were friendly or why have they said that they were going to help them. Inside the deposit it was obvious that the external look was only a distraction, some random building that no one would have pay too much attention, but when they enter that thing was like any part of the Castle of lions or the Atlas, technological stuff all around, people with strange clothes working in how know what and people training, it was a secret base, where the people against the evil alteans got ready to try to defeat them. It was impressive.  
“Now that they are here, what do you want to do with them?” Kaite asked, it was weird seeing her, she was really like Pidge, she even had the same name as her.   
“I don’t know, let them rest? Give them food?” Every time that guy talked, he moved his arms around, like he needed the physical emphasis for everything he said, it remembered him when he and Lance used to fight, he was always moving around, but now, he looked defeated, small, sad and tired, he wasn’t even trying to support himself anymore, all his height was resting in Hunk, his best friend looked also tired, changing between looking at the strangers and keeping worried glances at Lance.  
“You are going to be the one that explain this to Sven” Katie said, pointing his finger at Leandro, he just rolled his eyes in a motion that clearly expressed ‘Yes, yes I know that’.  
“You know Sven? Like human Sven? That look like him?” Hunk said, he was trying to make them look at Shiro, but also, he didn’t want to move too much. Shiro understood, and took out his helmet, Keith tried to ignore the panic that flowed through his veins.   
“No, well yes… but this guy looks like a grandpa with all that white hair” She looked defensive.  
“Hey! Akira has white hair, and he doesn’t look old at all!” So apparently his double in this reality had decided that white hair was a good option.  
“That’s only how you see it, because you are in love” Leandro put his hand in his heart, pretended to be hurt.  
“Of course, I’m in love, but that doesn’t have anything to do with this!”  
Again, they started to argue, he didn’t pay attention, his heart was pounding fast, and he could feel a blush spreading in his checks, he thought he was crazy when that girl had referred to his double as Lance double’s boyfriend, it didn’t help at all that he had been in love with Lance for a long time, like a really painful ridiculous long time. He felt like a terrible human being, well half human being, every time that he thought that, Lance was mourning right now, everybody was affected by Allura’s death but Lance was the most affected, he had lost his girlfriend, his so-called love of his life, the girl he had been after so many years. And Keith, he hadn’t done anything, not to prevent it, not to help him after everything that had happened, and he hate how hope started to rise in his heart, he was disgusted with himself, Lance was in pain and he was thinking that maybe now he stood a chance? He was a horrible creature. He was supposed to be Lance friend, he was supposed to be there for him, Lance trusted him, he had told him his insecurities about his first date with Allura, and how he was paying that? Feeling hopeful, it was like he was happy that Allura had died, which he was note, but sometimes he just felt that way, like the worst half human to ever exist across the entire universe.  
“They are clean” Said a voice behind them, Keith cursed internally, he was so focus on his internal dilemma, that he allowed someone to be behind them, he had left his team vulnerable because of his feelings.   
“Great” Katie exclaim, and then she got excited, like she had just had a brilliant idea “Hey Ty, are you interested in meeting your doppelganger?” Without a warning he took Hunk’s helmet, in a second, he felt his sword in his hand, the other had also activated his bayards, even Lance had got in position, his gun pointing to Katie.  
“How do they do that!? That weapons are so cool! But please, stop pointing my friend with them, she is a little reckless sometimes.” He knew that voice, Hunk immediately return his bayard to his normal form and turn around. Slowly Keith did the same, the gut behind them looked just like Hunk, just without the bandana, he had more muscle that Hunk but not too much, he was smiling friendly with his hands in the air, he had grease in his face and gloves, apparently, he was an engineer in this reality too.   
“Sorry, we have just fought a terrible battle, we are still a little bit jumpy” Hunk apologize, we seemed shocked looking at his double, but not too much. His double instead, looked excited.   
“Don’t apologize, is little goblin’s fault, she should know that taking away a helmet in a stranger place is dangerous” The nickname had sound affective, like when Lance called Pidge gremlin.  
“Who are calling little? I’m older than you!” That was a revelation.  
“Only for a month Katie” Leandro said.  
“Wait, how are you older that him? I’m two years younger than everybody, except Shiro” Pidge said, she was really intrigued by that fact, that she didn’t realize that she had slipped a name of her teammates.   
“Am I supposed to know that?” Katie answered, then she thought “You don’t have a twin, do you?”  
“Strange… I have and older brother” She was full in science mode, her hand at her chin, her eyes slightly close, she was thinking really hard.  
“Probably the thousands of possibilities between realities maybe in your reality Slav didn’t started walking upside down, and how this goblin has a twin and you and older brother” Leandro said, he was being sarcastic or at least Keith suppose, but if he really thought about it, it didn’t sound that improbable, Slav was really weird. After some time, Pidge just shrug.  
Things progressed really fast after Ty, Hunk’s double, appeared, it was like it didn’t matter the reality Hunk was a good diplomat and a kind person, it was like they just assumed ‘Hey, they have a Hunk, they are good people’. In minutes, they knew each other names, they had explained what Voltron was, what had happened in the fight against Haggar, and everything they knew from the moment the light blind them until they encountered Katie and Leandro. In exchange, the others explained, that earth had been taken by the alteans long ago, that a more than three quarters of the population was under the altean empire control, that they fought every day to try and rescue humans, to sabotage altean bases, destroy their technology and basically, tried to free Earth. They also found that just a year ago they had been contacted by the Guns of Gamora, that then they meet Sven and Slav, and with their help everything become more organized, the missions where more successful and with less casualties. In the end, they agreed to help them find their way home, but, until Katie, Pidge, Hunk and Ty figure that, the others would have to help in case of needed.   
When the improvised meeting ended, they were finally able to rest, the others had guided the paladins to a part of the facility where there where beds, the doors had a similar lock like the ones they had in the Garrison, four-digit code, he stood in front of his for a while, then he just typed ‘2806’, he was so lame.   
When Keith put his head in the pillow he had expected to fall sleep immediately, but he just stood there, with his eyes open, looking at the celling, his body was exhausted but his mind was still very active, thinking and thinking, the worst was that he wasn’t even thinking of the important stuff, like what his mother, or the others families must have been thinking, if they had already figure out what had happened, or if they had just assumed the worst, that Voltron was simply not going back. He wasn’t imagining how horrible it must have been for the Holts losing his daughter again, after three times, or Lance’s and Hunk’s families, being again without a single clue of how their children where in space, not even knowing if they were going to come back. He wasn’t event thinking of his wolf. All his thoughts were about the blue paladin, and the blue paladin alone, how he must have been feeling, if he was okay by his own, if he should go to see him or if he preferred to be left alone, he wonder if he was crying or he was just feeling numb, maybe he didn’t believe it, like when Shiro got missing and the Garrison said that he was dead, he pressed his palm against the wall, Lance room was right next to his, like it was in the Castle of Lions, he wanted to be there for him, but he didn’t know what to do, what if he went there and suddenly Lance started crying, he would panic and left, that didn’t sounded helpful at all. He heard steps outside his room.  
“Hey man, can we come in?” It was Hunk’s voice, gentle and caring as always. He deduced that the other person that was with him was Pidge. Lance, Pidge and Hunk had always been friends, closer than with the other, after all they had been a team before Voltron.   
“Yeah…” He had to make a lot of effort to figure out that that weak answer was Lance voice. He couldn’t hear more, because the door closed. 

Close by midnight he woke up, hey had enter their rooms pretty early and now he wasn’t tired anymore. He exited his room to find that all the facility was dark, just some computers were running, and a few people stood in front of them, he spotted a floating arm, and knew that Shiro was down there, he made his way to him.  
“Couldn’t keep sleeping?” Shiro asked, once he was next to him.  
“Not really” In the screen were three points moving around, in the middle of what it looked like a big ship, he paid more attention, the dots had names above them, Sven, Slav and Akira… His double was in a mission.  
“You think they are close?” Shiro said, looking at the screen.  
“Who?”  
“Our doubles” He highly believe that, they had just met a year ago, and if his double was anything like him, he probably didn’t trust Sven one hundred percent. Also, he liked to consider his relation ship with Shiro something odd and special, because how many people adopt you after you stole his car? He always believed that Shiro was a unique, but he also wanted to believe that they were close in every reality, he didn’t know what would have been of him if Shiro hadn’t help him. “Keith?”   
“Sorry, I don’t… know?” He answered.  
“It seems like at least Pidge, Hunk and Lance are close, no ours, well not, ours are close but I mean them… This is so confusing, I’m too old for this” He said, Keith wondered if he even slept at all.  
“You are not that old”   
“No, I guess I’m not” He smiled. Silence with Shiro was never uncomfortable, they could just stand there, long time, seeing the screen, and he would never feel the necessity of saying something. Not even his time, when they were avoiding talking about what had happened to Allura. He focused in his double, how he moved around the ship, he was almost always running, but sometimes he stopped and his movements became erratic, he guessed that in that times he was fighting.   
“…tomorrow” He was so focus on Akira, that he didn’t realize Shiro had started talking.   
“What?”   
“I said, you will meet him tomorrow, your double, this… Akira guy” He just nodded, he didn’t know how he was going to feel when he meets his double, and he preferred not to think about it. “You should try to sleep more, you are very distracted, rest Keith, we figure all this tomorrow” He gave him this look that said ‘I know what is best for you, so how about you do it’, he said goodbye and went back to sleep.  
The noise of a motorcycle woke him, it sounded like it was coming to that place at full speed, Keith immediately thought that they were about to be attacked, his hand was gripping his bayard really hard, ready to fight.  
“He’s back!” Leandro exclaimed, and dashed to the main entrance. It took him a few seconds to know what was happening, but once he did it, he gulped, he was about to see his double with Lance double. He really wasn’t sure if he wanted to see that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Am I dealying putting Leakira? Maybe, but I'm scared, first fanfic and all that.  
> Thank you for reading anyway (even if I don't know if someone is going to read this)


	3. It’s worse than complicated

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance continues to think about Allura, but he is not alone, he has his friends. Akira arrives and he doesn't know what's going on, so the others explain him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Three days in a row, I'm really invested in this story, but I’m still afraid that in some point I’m going to coward and not continue, so I think that why I’m writing every day. I’m trying with all my heart to make this without mistakes, but it’s really hard, so again sorry if something is wrong.

It’s worse than complicated  
Lance woke up feeling loved and protected, he could feel Pidge small form pressed against his back, her arms around him, currently his head was in hunks arm, he was using him as a pillow. They have apparently fall asleep when they were talking. They haven’t slept together since that day at the garrison when the three of them got homesick at the same night. 

_“Hey man, can we come in?” He had been expecting Hunk to show up, it was a pleasant surprise to see Pidge right by his side.  
“Yeah…”   
They sit on the bed, just staring at each other, no one knew how to start the conversation, not even sure if they really wanted to talk. Lance was kind of thankful for all the stuff that was happening, that had kept him distracted enough so he was able to forget at least for a few minutes of Allura, more specifically of Allura being gone. But now, seeing his friends in front of him was like a bucket of cold water threw directly at his back, all the effort he had put to no think about it was replaced with the horrid sensation of lost and sorrow.  
“What’s on your mind, man?” Hunk said, softly, he was very grateful that Hunk was there, he didn’t think that he could deal with all just by his own.   
“Allura…” Just saying her name was painful, a constant reminder that she was gone, that she had decided to leave him, he felt bad for thinking that but he really couldn’t help it.   
“We could have found another way” Pidge said, she was looking at him with remorse but she had this fire in her eyes that told him that she didn’t regret saying that “It’s true and you know it, don’t lie to me Lance, you have been thinking about it”  
“Pidge! You can’t say stuff like that!” Hunk was worried, he kept looking at him like he was expecting him to start crying at any moment.   
“It’s true Hunk! We could have done something different, maybe if we have gone to the remain reality, we could have found someone or something to help us repair the realities without making any sacrifice” He didn’t say anything, he just stared at his two best friends discussed in front of him.  
“We don’t know that Pidge, if Allura did it was maybe because there wasn’t any other way.” They seemed to have forgotten that he was there, but he didn’t mind, it was like seeing his own thoughts materialize.   
“But how can you be so sure of that? She didn’t explain anything to us, she just did it, she… it was like she forgot we were a team!” And the Pidge was crying and screaming “There must have been another way”  
“Pidge…” Lance said, hugging her.  
“It’s so unfair, she left us, she left you without a second thought” She hug him back. “And shit, we were supposed to be here to try to make you feel better, not this”  
“It’s okay” He said, resting his head in the top of Pidge’s.  
“It’s not okay Lance…” Hunk put his hand in his shoulder, he had this sad smile, and little tears in the corner of his eyes, Lance was pretty sure he was crying too “It’s never going to be okay, she sacrificed herself, and we couldn’t do anything about it…”  
“Hunk… we suck at helping” Pidge said, her voice muffled by Lance shirt.  
“No, you are perfect, is like hearing my own thoughts, and knowing that I’m not the only one thinking that makes me feel better” Hunk joined the hug. “I expend so much time trying to talk her out of her ideas, because I didn’t want to lose her… And now she’s gone and I have so much regret, I could have spent my time with her being happy, instead, instead…”  
“You were worried Lance, all of us knew she was putting herself in too much danger, no one blames you for acting the way you did. And yes, maybe you could be all supportive and all… but it wouldn’t be the real you, you don’t like when the people you care about put themselves in danger and it’s okay, no one likes that, but you are the only one that voice that instead of just keeping it to yourself” Hunk was speaking softly against Lance temple.  
“It’s true, when Matt went to the resistance, I didn’t want him to go, I felt so scared but I knew I couldn’t stop him, I wanted to say it, to let him know that I didn’t want him to go, that it was to risky and do you remember what you said to me?” Lance smiled a little “You were all ’Who the hell he thinks he is? He can’t just leave his baby sister like that!’ you were mad for me, you expressed all that I couldn’t you have always been like that.”  
“And it’s not like just because you didn’t like her choices you didn’t support her, you were there by her side all the time, no matter how painful it was, because you knew her, better that any one of us, you knew how stubborn she was”   
The stood in silence for a while, Lance was thinking, about everything, he was so hurt, he felt like he had a hole instead of a heart, every memory of Allura was now tainted with a bittersweet taste, but there was this numbness, this feeling so rare that he couldn’t really identify. He thought that Allura being gone was going to destroy him, that he was going to fall so hard that nothing and no one was going to be able to help him, that he was just to lie around until dead claim him. But he didn’t feel any of that, he didn’t feel hopeless or even negative, it was like, very deep inside of him he always knew that this was going to be the result, maybe it was when she accepted the entity or maybe before, when she talked about the grater good. He felt like he had betrayed her, that he should be sadder, more regretful, but he wasn’t, he cherished every moment with her, but it was like he never believed that were going to last, that it was too good to be real. He remembered the way she looked when they were resting, always with this invisible weight in her shoulders, that she refused to share. He was glad that he wasn’t alone in that moment, because if he was, he would probably start to think if he ever loved her the way he said he did, or if he only idealized her but when he got the real chance to be with her the illusion broke…  
“What are you thinking now?” Pidge asked him, snuggling against him, he hadn’t realized that now they were lying on the bed instead of sitting.  
“That I really loved her, with all my being… That maybe I always love her… That she left a huge wound in my heart” Hunk flinched “But with you guys… I get this feeling that the wound will heal eventually, and that we are going to get back home”  
“Good” Hunk said and that was the last the last thing he remembered before he fell asleep. ___

___He stared at the ceiling, hearing the breathing of his two friends, he had this dream, where Allura came back, she came back and told him that she was sorry, he thought it was going to be a nice dram, but it was not, she was saying sorry for leaving him, for fiving him the altean marks that, for giving him a constant remainder of his lost, she was sorry for leaving Blue alone, she said sorry too many times, and he just stood there, without words, without doing anything when she was clearly in pain, he hadn’t do anything, again.  
“It’s too early to be torturing yourself” A recently awoke Pidge said.  
“Sorry” _

___Then they heard a motorcycle approaching, in one moment, they were out of the room, bayards in hand. Shiro and Keith were there too, tense and ready to fight._  
“He’s back!”   
His double screamed, he was running to the main entrance, with Katie and Ty behind him. He looked at Keith, and discovered that Keith was looking at him too, he seemed worried, by the situation and for him, but he just stared at him asking ‘What do we do?’ silently. Keith decided to go and see what was happening. The five of them were just arriving at the main entrance when a red motorcycle enter full speed, his pilot didn’t look like he was going to stop anytime soon. If their doubles weren’t so calm, he would have probably started shooting the damn motorcycle. In the end, the pilot jumped of the moving vehicle, and landed painfully in his back, the motorcycle continued his trajectory for a few meters before it exploded, just outside de building.   
“Akira!” Leandro was by his side in two seconds. “What happened!?”   
“It was a trap” The guy in Leandro’s arms said “We have to separate…”  
“What!? But the intel said that the ship was almost empty” He proceeded to take of Akira’s helmet, his face was calm, but his actions, his words and his hands were a clearly indication that he was panicking. Then all the paladins stared at the pilot, his hair was white, and was securely tied in a ponytail, he had a scar in his right cheek identically at Keith’s scar, his eyes were the same, that estrange but beautiful purple color. It was like seeing Keith that decided to dye his hair. “Are you hurt? Oh my god! What if you broke your back!? Or had a contusion!?”  
“Hey… hey… hey! I’m okay” He caressed Leandro’s cheek, forcing the guy to look at him, so he could see that he was smiling “I’m not hurt, but I wanted to arrive here before that thing blow up”  
“That wasn’t very clever” Ty said, him and Katie were furiously typing stuff in their respective tablets.  
“You mean it was stupid, right?” Katie said “Because, it could have been trace here, and we could all end up dead… You, young man, were really lucky that was not the case” It was really weird hearing Pidge double acting like the oldest one.  
“I’m older than you, by almost a year” Akira grunted, while Leandro helped him stand. He was still checking him, like he suddenly thought that some magical wound was going to appear. And then…  
“Why the hell is that here!?” He was pointing a blade, that looked a lot like Keith’s blade, just that instead of being grey and purple was white and yellow, at Lance direction, his attitude changed from teasing to deadly. Lance heard the unique sound of the bayards being activated.  
“Whoa, whoa guys calm down” Leandro raised one hand, the other one still supporting Akira.  
“Leo what the hell is going on!?” He had this stern look, and he was putting his blade in a defensive position, he was defending the guy carrying him.   
“They are friendly, okay?”  
“Friendly!? I just stuck my blade in five of them that looked just like him and you want me to believe that this one is fucking friendly!?”  
Akira was shacking, probably for all the anger, Lance started to fear that in one of that movement that Akira did to point at him with his blade, the blade would slip from his hands and hit him. He apparently wasn’t the only one who thought that, because Keith moved so he was in front of him, sword in hand.  
“Hey babe, calm down a little, you are all agitated, yes you have too run for your life, but now you are okay, right? You are with me, we are okay, all of us”   
Leandro had Akira’s face in his hands, he was saying the words calmly and with a soothing tone, slowly Akira stopped shaking, a new glint appeared in his eyes, like he was just realizing where he was and with who. His body relaxed, he hugged the guy that was in front of him, and suddenly they started to kiss, more like making out in the middle of the entrance. Lance already knew that those two were a couple, but he always found uncomfortable when two people started kissing, he didn’t know what to do, should he just look or that would count as staring, should he look at something else or that was equally disrespectful? At least his teammates looked as uncomfortable as he was.  
“Guys, guys, there is a child present” Katie said, pointing at Ty who just looked at her with this ‘really?’ face.  
“Sorry Ty, we just love each other so much” Akira blushed, and looked away, while Leandro smiled getting as close as he could to his boyfriend.  
“Yeah no problem bud’ But we should really tell him what’s going on” 

___After checking that effectible Akira was fine, just some bruises and scratches and get in touch with Slav and Sven, they all sit together, it was really weird, it was like looking at some kind of mirror, one that told you other possibilities or different styles and clothes selection._  
“So, you are telling me that these… these doubles in front of us came from a different reality?” Akira had Leandro’s hand in his, and seemed to be playing with it, while he tried to understand all.  
“Yes” Katie said.  
“And we are going to help them get back into their reality” He looked at Ty for confirmation, the other guy nodded. “And how are we going to do that?”  
“Well Ty and I had been checking the anomalies in the space to try to find something that could work as an inter-reality conduct, but since we never saw one before, we are not certain of what exactly we are looking for, but our doubles were to tired yesterday to help, but now that they rested, they are going to help us, right?”  
“Yes, when we accidentally came to this reality before, we have to come back by a specific point, Green has the data of that point, so I will go and downloaded the information so we could find something similar or preferably identical.” Pidge said.  
“That’s the other stuff, flying robot lions? That form a badass super robot?” Akira looked like he didn’t believe it, or comprehend it.  
“You could describe Voltron as that” Keith said.  
“Oh! What about a demonstration? It would be really cool to see that badass robot of yours” Leandro said, enthusiastically. And the mood change, every one of the paladins thought the same thing at the same moment.  
“We can´t” Keith said, his sight was down, and he had tightened his fists.  
“What? Why not? Is one of your lions broken or something? Well I’m just saying because yesterday one didn’t seem to be functioning quite alright” Silence, Lance felt his chest constrict, he couldn’t say it, he didn’t want to hear anyone say it, it was too soon.  
“We… in the fight against Haggar we lost someone, the paladin of the blue lion didn’t make it” Shiro said, the others looked consternate. And Lance was glad by his choice of words.  
“We are sorry for your loss, we understand your pain” Akira said, every one of their doubles seemed to be thinking of someone, it was a war after all, they all had lost someone too.  
There was no sound expect the one that some computers made, eventually they could hear footsteps, but no one spoke, Lance started thinking how different things would be if Allura was there, she might by able to work in a way to return them home, they could use Voltron to find that point, they maybe had never come to Earth, and maybe he didn’t felt like this hole in his chest, the others wouldn’t be quiet, maybe he would have jump in front of her to protect her from Akira’s rage, maybe… maybe… but there was no point in thinking that, she wasn’t going to come back.  
“Well this is sad, we can spend the rest of the day sulking or we can start to find whatever you need to go back home, and I have to get ready for a mission” Leandro said, getting up. Katie nodded, and she and Ty got up too, followed by Hunk and Pidge, Shiro and Keith were the next, saying something about training and Guns of Gamora, they left, not without Keith sending him a worried glance. Leandro looked at him.  
“You want to help me? I understand if you want to be alone, but you don’t look like you want that” He saw how Akira clenched their joined hands. He didn’t want him to go, and least with a guy that looked like an altean. Leandro caressed his hand, a motion too reassured him, Akira looked conflicted, but in the end, he let go his hand. “What do you say?”  
“Yes, I would like to do that” 

___He didn’t have a clue for what Leandro had to get ready, but he was grateful for the distraction, Leandro was very similar to him, he talked a lot, had this great mood all the time, and he couldn’t help to wonder if he was as insecure as he was, if he keep talking so the silence wouldn’t allow his thought to be heard, if he was always cheerful because he knew that if he let himself down he would drown._  
“Yes” He said out of blue.  
“What?”  
“Yes, I am like you” He said, while he picked some stuff from some station.  
“How do you know that I was wondering that?” They had been going around the facilities picking up things.  
“Because I was wondering the same, and you resemble me in some way” They were carrying heavy boxes all around.   
“Right now, we are nothing alike” You are happy and I’m not. He wanted to say.   
“Well no, but I was in the same state as you are, two years ago” He explained “My big brother, he scarified himself for me in a mission, and kept wondering if there wasn’t something I could have done about it, sometimes I even thought it was my fault that he had died, other days I found myself wishing that it would have been me and not him, I was quiet more days than not, there were moments that I felt that things were okay again, but some dream or sound just make me fall again”  
“And how… how you get through that?” He couldn’t exactly compare the death of a brother with the death of Allura. He froze.  
“You just thought that this blue paladin was dead, right? With the specific word ‘death’” He nodded, not trusting his voice, he started shaking. Leandro came to him and hug him “I now it’s difficult, but everything is going to be fine”  
He wished he could believe him. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for everything, just by seeing the ‘hits’ rise I feel a little bit better, and with the kudos I’m like getting more motivated, and for the people that comments I love them like really just a tinny comment is all I need to keep going.  
> Thank you for reading, I hope that you are enjoying this.


	4. More troubles

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith has to deal with his feelings and need to help Lance. Pidge brings some new information that no one likes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm going to apologize for this, because is going to be more story than romance, and I’m sorry for that, because it might seem like the love is in second plane. So, I’m sorry. But I hope you enjoy the story.  
> (And sorry for any mistake)

More troubles

 

When Keith left the table, it was so he could focus on another thing, but of course Shiro wasn’t going to let that happen.  
“Intriguing” He said, walking by his side, he knew that the best he could do for himself was ignore him but he also knew that they were going to have to talk about it sooner or later.   
“What?” He grunted, ready for a very uncomfortable talk.  
“Your double”  
“What about him?” He was regretting even started to talk back.  
“He seems… happy” He stopped.  
“What are you implying?” He loved Shiro, he really did, the guy was practically his brother, but sometime, sometime he just wished that Shiro talked directly, not hoping that him discover something or make some kind of introspection.  
“Nothing, I was just describing what I saw” Oh how much he hates him right now, why can’t he just tell him what was on his mind, was he trying to say that Keith wasn’t happy? Because if that was the case, he was wrong, Keith was happy, he could be happier obviously, but he was happy, more like content, anyway he was happy.  
“Okay” He thought he had ended the conversation, he was wrong.  
“How is Lance?” He started walking again, in a stupid move to evade the question “You haven’t talking to him… Why?”   
“Because I can’t” It was somehow the truth.  
“You can’t? Or you don’t want to?” Damn Shiro for being that perceptive. “Keith, he is your friend, he needs you”  
“But I can’t, I don’t know how to help him, Pidge and Hunk are so much more qualified to help him that I am” He really wished he could do something, but he was terrible with emotions and stuff like that, every time that something scared him or when he couldn’t understand something he got angry and left, Lance needed something to comfort him, someone who could help him, he wasn’t that person, even if he wish he could be.   
“Keith… Lance doesn’t need your help, you can’t help him” It hurt more than he expected hearing that “Because… because when you lost someone you care about you feel like no one would be able to understand that kind of pain, you feel loss and hurt, people can’t help you with that, no one would magically make everything to stop hurting, no one can bring you back what you lost, but… they can be there for you, and believe me, only knowing that they are there, that they care, is enough. Lance needs time, he just lost someone precious to him, you can’t just leave him there, he needs you, as a friend, as someone who really cares about him. None of us is qualified to help him in a professional way, but we can be there for him…”  
Shiro was talking with his own experience, he was trying to put in words what he had felt when they came back to Earth, how it still hurt thinking about it. Keith felt bad, he was focusing too much on himself, on how he wasn’t enough, that he forgot that everybody had lost something in the war.   
“Shiro… I’m sorry” He felt bad, but Shiro put an arm in his shoulder, he looked at him and saw that traces of pain in his eyes, but he also saw some healing, hope and understanding.  
“It’s okay Keith…” He smiled “You are just a child after all”  
“I’m an adult in every country” The serious atmosphere had been broken, Shiro laughed, but the weight in Keith’s heart didn’t reduced. 

They asked about Guns of Gamora, and everybody told them that only Sven and Slav were authorized to talk about that or contact the rest of the Guns, and after that mission with Akira, they would, probably, were going to take a week to come back. They ended in the training rooms, people looked at them, more that once someone had approached Keith asking him something about a mission or to bring him reports or just to comment about his ‘new look’, and every time he had to explain that he wasn’t Akira. It was scary, he was sure that didn’t happened to the rest of his teammates, no one confuse Keith with Pidge, or Hunk with Ty, so Why people mistake him and Akira so easily? He didn’t feel like they were so alike. When the tenth person brought him a report he just had to ask.  
“Why do you keep thinking that I am him?” He asked some young girl.  
“You are really similar, you even move the same way and your blade is just like his. The only thing that make me doubt was that Leandro wasn’t around” She said, and then she answered his unspoken question “He likes to see Akira train, he called it his personal entertainment”   
Leandro and Akira, Lance’s and Keith’s doubles, he had seen his intense reunion, the images were stuck in his brain, he really disliked how he could just make a few mental changes and the images were something completely different, just a darker hair, less piercing, and… He shook off the image, he wasn’t allowed to think that, not today, not tomorrow, probably never. It was so annoying, the way his heart started beating faster, how his cheeks gained color and his palms sweated, how he could picture with excessive detail Lance’s face. Shiro, merciless as always, hit him and make him fall.  
“I’m impressive, that a mess like yourself had been able to fight” He was smirking.  
“Very funny”   
“I think this is enough for today, we should probably find the showers, you stink” Shiro help him up.  
“Only me?”  
He put his blade away, making it a knife again, there was something that bother him, but he didn’t know if it was a good idea to tell Shiro that. Keith was half galra, he didn’t have a problem with that anymore, plus Lance had called him cool because of that, but in their previous visit to this reality, Hira had said that the galra where the first to fall under the altean empire, so at least that some of the galra had manage to escape… Akira would be one hundred percent human, but that blade, the one he had when he came back it was really like Keith’s blade, just that it looked altean. He was probably overthinking things.

After shower, Shiro told him that he was going to check on the lions, he should probably do the same, he missed Black presence in his mind. But first he had to talk to Lance, just check how he was at least. He found him in the shooting range, with an enthusiastic Leandro by his side.  
“it’s amazing, this gun is amazing, you are amazing” Lance looked overwhelm by Leandro comments.  
“You want to try?” Lance said, he looked ashamed in a good way.  
“Can I?” Leandro was like a child at Christmas.   
“I only saw once a bayard work with someone that wasn’t a paladin, but maybe it could work?” He sounded uncertain.  
Lance gave Leandro his bayard, and suddenly Keith thought it wasn’t a good idea, their double didn’t look like bad people, but being in a room disarmed just didn’t feel right, so he decided to stop spying and enter.   
“Hey Keith” He wasn’t going to ask how Lance knew he was him without turning around, he wasn’t going to think about that, he wasn’t.   
“Hey Lance, what are you two doing?” Leandro had de bayard in his hands, and was looking at it, but the bayard didn’t change.  
“We were having this competition, when I told Lance that it was unfair, that he had a better weapon, so he showed me the different stuff his rifle could do, but I think… that this thing doesn’t like me” He started to shake the bayard, hoping to activated it somehow. “It’s useless, it just doesn’t like me. Well I have some things to do, so see you around”   
He returned Lance bayard and left, it took Keith almost a minute, to realize that he was now alone with Lance, and that he was supposed to say something, anything. He inhaled deeply, he had to be relaxed, normal, it was going to be a simple conversation, between to friends.   
“Hey…” Not the most brilliant start, but it was something.  
“Are you okay, Keith?” Well, shit.  
“Yes, why are you asking that?” _I’m supposed to be asking you that _, he thought.__  
“I don’t know? It has been a couple of weird days, we defeated Haggar, saved all realities, and now we are stuck here, with our doubles and an army of evil alteans…” He touched his cheek, were his altean marks were. “No one expect you to be okay, you are allowed to freak out, you know?”  
“Okay… this is super weird, like something so strange, you know that people confuse me with Akira? And then there all this thing about the Guns of Gamora and is like super weird? Like Who are they? And then Katie is our age and I can’t completely comprehend that, because she is so much like Pidge, and why the hell Akira thought white hair would suit him? Can you imagine me with that?”   
He was officially the worst friend ever, he was supposed to be there for Lance, and Lance was worried about him, he was supposed to be asking him how he was, not ramble about all the things that he had been thinking. He was about to apologize or say something else, when he heard it, Lance was laughing, a genuine laugh, he was looking at him with this amused expression and Keith was shocked.   
“You would look horrible, even edgy” He said between laughs. Keith couldn’t stop his own smile, he was astonished that he had been able to make Lance laugh, he felt all his entire being warm.  
“Then I never do it I’m already older than I’m supposed to” He commented.  
“Technically you are a year younger that you are supposed to, you know how strange is that now Veronica is my older sister? She was my baby sister”   
“Unbelievable, she acted like she was always your older sister” Shiro’s word resounded in his head, he was pretty sure that this counted as ‘just being there’.  
They kept talking, about everything and anything, Keith told Lance about his time in the space whale, now including the strange flashed he had, Lance told him about his family, things that he didn’t knew and sometimes thing he already do, but he didn’t tell him that. They talked about the Garrison, how Iverson was insufferable, how the food was bad but how good it tasted after all that goo, they talked about how Keith and Shiro met, and Lance told him how he met Hunk and how they became best friends. They avoided some topics, no one mention Allura, it didn’t feel like the best moment to bring that up. But Keith felt happy, sometimes Lance seemed sad or melancholic, but he kept talking, he didn’t smile if he didn’t feel like, but when he did was always genuine smiles, Keith thought it didn’t bother him at all, if Lance smiled less but every time, he did it was going to be like that, he would love it. He believed he could do that all the time, just being there for Lance, maybe that would be enough.  
After what it felt like hours, they received a message. Pidge wanted to see them.  
“We shouldn’t let her waiting” Lance said, and started to move. Watching him go told Keith some nasty through, being just there was never going to be enough, but he was going to everything in his power to be there.  
“Okay”

___He was still smiling when they arrived at the table they had been in the morning. And everybody looked tense, that erased his smile, and he got into leader mode, something was happening._  
“You want the bad news, the terrible news or the worst news?” Pidge said, Katie was beside her. Hunk had this worried look and was fidgeting with his hands. Shiro and Ty were both with their arms crossed, looked consternate. Leandro looked apologetic, he was snuggling against Akira that had this thoughtful look, while his arms were rubbing Leandro’s arm.   
“What is it? Whatever order is fine” Lance was looking at him, he was also scared, but he could see that he trusted him to know what to do, he hoped he didn’t disappoint him.  
“Hira is the empress, she became that after she brought some strange mineral, just piece but was enough to make her empress with promises of finding more”  
“The trans reality comet” He said, Pidge nodded.  
“She is here, she hates humans more than any other species, want to guess why?” She continued.  
“Because we took the comet away from her” So again, what had happened to Earth was their fault, maybe they could do something about it, they could help somehow to emend their mistakes.  
“That’s the bad news. The other thing is that after running some analysis, it seems that we can’t stay here long, since we had doubles, we are… we are like… I’m trying to put this in simple words…”  
“If we stay here, we or them are going to disappear” Hunk said.  
“What? Why?” Keith didn’t believe it.  
“Because we can’t exist in the same reality, we are basically the same person, and no reality can sustain two beings that are the same, is against the laws, no matter how similar two things are they can’t be the same, even clones are different in a minuscule level” Pidge explained it. All of the others looked worried, no one wanted to disappear, suddenly their doubles put his team in risk and vice versa. He begun to think if Haggar knew that, she would have risk all of that without the assurance that her plan was going to work, that she just put all the reality itself at risk… and just for some try, maybe she wasn´t even sure if she was going to be able to exist in that reality, but she tried anyway. He wondered if she really did all that in the name of love.  
“I assume that this are the horrible news?” She nodded again, what could be possible than that…  
“To get out of here, we need Voltron, and we need it fast” He felt Lance stiff by his side, he looked at his teammates, all of them looked conflicted. In order to form Voltron, someone had to use the blue lion. And no one wanted that. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, this is what is happening, I will be rotating Lance and Keith POV, one chapter each, so the next one will be with Lance POV. I hope you are liking this and thank you for reading.  
> (Thank you for the kudos and the comments, they keep me going)


	5. Introspection

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance takes a decision after he hears a talk between Akira and Leandro. Blue does something unexpected.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really don’t know how long make this, I have various ideas, but I will try to make this the less boring possible.  
> (Sorry for any mistakes)

Introspection

“Lance…” Keith started, but he really wanted to hear him right now. So, he just left.  
He walked randomly, not really caring where he was going, he had just to remember to stay in the facility and everything was going to be okay. Only that it wasn’t, I wasn’t fucking okay, they needed Voltron, they needed someone capable of flying the Blue lion, and they didn’t have many options, actually they only had one option, him. And he didn’t want to do it, he just couldn’t, Blue was Allura’s, and hers only. He couldn’t do it, he didn’t want to do it. How was he supposed to do it? He begun to think that maybe Shiro could do it, Keith stayed in Black, Lance in Red and Shiro could take Blue, but deep in his heart he knew that wasn’t the answer. He didn’t even know where he was, when he started to hear what it looked like a fight.

“What are you talking about?” It was his voice, well Leandro’s voice.  
“Don’t go, please” The other voice was definitely Keith’s, but giving the situation it was probably Akira. He had thought that seeing his double and Keith’s double interact in the way they did was going to be weird, but when he saw them together it hadn’t been weird at all, it was like something in his mind told him that was possible, no some bizarre event. And it had made sense to him, after all he had saw a lot of flashes when the realities were being tearing apart, and more often than not, he had seen him with Keith, sometimes with Allura, a couple with Shiro, others with Pidge or Hunk, there were ones when he was alone, or others when he was with people he didn’t recognize, and tons in which he didn’t even exist and a few very strange and scary with Lotor, he preferred not to think about that ones.

He approached, and he saw Leandro with a bag. Were they breaking up? He hoped it wasn’t because of their fault. Then he recognized Leandro’s bag, it was the one Lance had helping him prepare, for his mission.  
“I can’t just not go Akira, and you know that” Leandro seemed really surprised.  
“I know that… at least don’t take this” He took his hand, Lance was still impressed that Leandro used fingerless gloves, because they remain him of Keith, and he wasn’t sure they were the best accessory. But the important thing was that in that gloves was a hidden pill, something he hadn’t noticed before.  
“You know that we can’t get captured, or we could become non-cogs” Leandro raised his hands and cupped Akira’s face. “What’s wrong babe? You know you can tell me”  
“I… I just can’t lose you” Akira seemed defeated, he held his boyfriend like if letting him go would cause him to disappear.  
“Hey! I’m not going anywhere, I be back by midnight” He whispered, but Lance still could hear him.  
“Don’t take it, if they captured you, I swear that I will rescue you” Leandro looked lovingly at Akira, he had a sweet sad smile in his face.  
“I know you will try to do that, but we know that’s not possible” Then he seemed to remember something “What are you not telling me? This was never a problem before”  
“I have always been worried about you” Akira said defensibly.  
“But you had never doubted of me” Before the other could interrupt him, he put a hand in his mouth “Is this because of what our double said? Because Katie is sure that we have at least a month”  
“Yes, is that” He said unconvinced and Leandro noticed it.  
“Is this because of the last mission? I don’t remember much because I was knock out, but… something happened?”  
“This has nothing to do with that”  
“So, it has all to do with that” Akira was a terrible liar “Akira you have to tell me if something happened there, so we could find a solution or something”  
“Nothing happened” Really bad liar.  
“I can’t have this conversation right now, but when I come back, because I will, we have to talk”  
Leandro leave, and Akira stood there, he whispered an ‘I love you’ to Leandro but he was too far to hear him. Lance felt bad, they were causing problems to their doubles and he didn’t want that, he understood their fear, because it was the same he had, they were certain of which one of them was going to disappear if they didn’t do something, it could be Pidge or Katie, Hunk or Ty, Keith or Akira, Sven or Shiro, Leandro or himself. He didn’t want that, they all deserved to live, had a life of their own. He took a decision, and went to were the lions where.

Voltron, the amazing robot created by King Alfor, made of five mechanical lions that share a deep bond with their pilots, the universe last hope, the one used to put an end to the galra empire, the one that killed Zarkn, the one that left Lotor in the quintessence field to die, the one that had defeated Haggar’s robeast and Haggar herself. The one that had joined five humans in a quest, five subjects that never thought would have ended working together if it wasn’t because of that. Five chose saviors of the universe.  
Lance stood in front of Blue, she had her barrier up, she had be the one that called him in that cave, the one that had let him in, she had chosen him, because of her he had met Allura, the woman that had become everything to him, the woman that decided that the universe, the realities were most important than herself, the woman she loved.  
“Hey Blue” He said softly. “We need you”  
His teammates where behind him, they were at a considerable distance, even if his connection was mental, he wanted to have this conversation as private as possible. The barrier was still up, but he could feel her presence in his mind, Red presence was there too, stronger, Red was mad, she wanted to know what he was doing there, why wasn’t him with her. He explained to her, just letting his thoughts flow in his head. Then he felt rejection, it was like Red was telling him that she didn’t care, she wasn’t going to do it, Blue agreed with her.  
“But we need you, you know what is at risk” He wondered if Keith had ever had this type of conversation with two lions, because it was difficult, and it was making his head ache. He tried to ask them why they didn’t want to do it, it was just a one-time thing, one ride, on Voltron formation and that was it. But they were stubborn, they refused to change paladins, he was at the same time touched that Red like him so much, and annoyed that she was so stubborn. He tried to reach Blue again, but he felt the equivalent to a slap in his mind, she didn’t want to talk with him. He pressed his head against the barrier.  
“C’mon Blue, at least tell me what’s wrong” Have Blue liked Allura that much? Or she just didn’t like him anymore? He felt he was wrong, and knew that it was Blue telling him that. He started thinking about Pidge, about her sad face when she was saying all about the disappearances, her pained face when she said that they needed Voltron, the way she had looked at him, like she knew how he was feeling… He felt an annoyed wave, Blue knew he was blackmailing her. Red sent and indignant wave. He felt bad but it was working, he moved his thoughts to Hunk, his best friend the way he fidget with his hands when he was worried, his ‘you don’t have to do it, we find another way’ look, the quick glances he made to everybody in the table, Lance knew that he already care for their doubles, and he didn’t want them to disappear. The barrier started to switch on and off, Blue was doubting.  
“You are right, I don’t want to do this, but I have to” With that said, Blue let him in.  
He walked slowly, the distance between the entrance and the pilot’s sit, Allura’s sit, his mind corrected. He knew that just being inside wasn’t enough, that he needed it Blue to activate, to fly. He reluctantly sat, he put his hands in the controls and waited, but Blue didn’t respond. He closed his eyes, tried to focus on Blue, but Red was there, he imagined that if lions could spoke, he would be hearing a serious amount of bad words, he felt her indignation, her angry, and her feeling of betrayal, it was overwhelming, he couldn’t reach Blue like that. He tried to soothe her, but she was persistent, he was so focus on tried to bloke her that he didn’t feel her worried, her screams to him, he didn’t acknowledge that she wanted to protect him.

_“Lance?”_ He froze, it was Allura’s voice, right in his mind, but it sounded different that the other times he remembered her voice, it felt like she was talking to someone else. _“What about him?”_ Then he understood, this was Blue’s memories of Allura, she was broadcasting them to him. His vision turned blurred, and suddenly he was a spectator, he was immersed in Blue’s memories.  
And there she was, in her paladin armor, gripping the controls, he felt like crying. _“Thank you Blue, thank you for accepting me”_ it was her first time in Blue, seconds before Lance had left to get to Red. The images changed, he could see emotions in her face, she was focus sometimes, relaxed, angry, and relieved, he admired the way the different lights of the universe made her face beautiful in thousand ways. He felt tears in his face.  
_“Lotor…”_ He felt like something had perforated his heart. _“What do you think Blue, should I trust him?”_ He started to cry in a different way, why was Blue showing him this? Allura’s feeling for Lotor flooded through him, she loved him, she felt complete with him. He wanted to scream, to tell Blue to stop, but he couldn’t make any sound.  
_“He betrayed me… us… He has to pay for that!”_ He felt Allura’s sorrow, the way her heart broke when Lotor turned on them. But he could also feel a different type of sadness, something that he had never felt, it was a sentiment so unique, it was love, a love that didn’t ceased to exist, she was hurt, but she couldn’t make her feeling chance, she tried to focus on every bad thing Lotor had done, but it was hard… so difficult.  
_“What am I doing?”_ She was no longer in her armor, but in the suits the Garrison had made them, the ones that where the same design but with different colors. She was just resting in Blue, looking at the stars, it was moments before their first date. And she looked so hesitant, so uncertain. _“He had always been there for me, and I know he has affection for me… but what do I feel?”_ When she had said yes to the date, he had been so happy, but if he remembered correctly, she hadn’t actually said yes by her own will, Romelle had pushed her. And now she was doubting.  
_“It’s okay, it’s okay… I can learn to feel the same, I already care about him”_ They were in some battle that he didn’t remember, she was focus on the enemy, he could see Red in front of her, and Black, Green and Yellow were out of sight. He was trying to not hear her thoughts, to not feel her emotions, but it was impossible. He felt that Allura liked him, otherwise she had never agreed to that date in the first place, but he also felt that her feelings were not the same, that she felt that her affection was too little in contrast with Lance’s.  
_“You know Blue, I wish I had more time”_ The interior of the Atlas was dark, she must have got to Blue to think, he wanted to know when this had happened. He felt all her uncertain, her fear of not being able to defeat Haggar, he felt something that he didn’t thought or at least he hoped wasn’t there, it was doubt, doubt about her feelings… her feelings about Lotor. _“I almost let him die, Blue, I was about to do it, for real… If it wasn´t for you, maybe I would have made a decision that I regretted”_ What was she talking about? And just like that he was outside Blue, in Oriande, Allura had a perfect shot, she had impulse herself, she was about to kill Haggar. He didn’t remember any of that. He saw the all the lions being down, he saw Lotor’s ship dangerously pointing at Red, he had been unconscious that time. He felt Allura´s resolution, ready to murder Haggar, when the witch had stopped her, saying something about being the only one controlling Lotor, that if she died in that moment, Lance was going to die. He felt her anger, but he also felt her ‘I don’t care as long as you are gone’. He thought that was going to hurt more than it did, but it didn’t. In the end, she hadn’t done it. Bute he could felt her regret in all the others fighting, every time that someone else died, she thought how she was able to stop all that before. In the worst moments, she once thought that it hadn’t been worth it.  
Lance broke, he felt a pain so hard, he had never experience something like that before… He tried to rationalize all her thoughts, tried to justified her, tried to remember that only time she had said she loved him, he tried, and tried… until he blackout. 

“Lance! Buddy, oh my god, thank goodness you are awake!” Hunk had tears in his eyes, and was hugging him a little to hard. “We were so worried, Blue just block it all, we couldn’t reach you, the barrier was up… I was so scared, we thought that maybe Haggar’s entity had infected Blue or something. Oh man, don’t do ever do that again” His hands were trembling when he hugged back.  
“I… I’m… sorry” He could’t talk properly, he had this weigh in his chest, this pain and his eyes were burning with tears.  
“What happened? Are you hurt?” Hunk was checking him, but he stopped when he saw his face, he had never saw him so worried “Lance… What’s wrong?”  
“She didn’t love me” _The same way I loved her._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just to clarified, I do not hate Allura or anything, I just feel like she didn’t have enough time to think about herself, and that she had a huge responsibility, that’s why I believed that she never had time to really put I order her feelings, just in the very end, maybe.
> 
> Thank you for reading! (I hope you still reading after this)


	6. What we have to do

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith finds more things about the alteans, later he has to see Lance enter Blue. (This is what happened while Lance was inside Blue)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for not updated these past days, I have been suffering with some stuff from collage (Is going to be a hell of a semester). This part has more information and Keith thought, there is really not actual action here.  
> (Again, sorry for any mistakes)

What we have to do

When Pidge had said that they needed Voltron he had wanted to ask Lance what did he think about all that, but he had left, he was so worried after that, he didn’t want Lance to believe that he was going to force him to do something he didn’t want. He spent a lot of time searching him, but it was impossible, no one had known where Lance was. He felt apprehension and fear crept in his heart, Lance wasn’t stupid, he knew that going outside was dangerous, he wasn’t reckless and impulsive as he was, he knew that, but he couldn’t stop thinking that maybe he went outside. After all everyone made bad decision once in a while.  
He remembered that time when he was recently become the leader of Voltron, he had thought he could do everything by himself, he had put the team in jeopardy because of his bad decisions, he had lost three of his four teammates in that hellish planet, he could have lost them forever, he remembered being alone with Lance, he had been so sure he was going to shove in his face the fact that Black had made a mistake, that he was no leader, he had expected a lot of things, except Lance support, he hadn’t tried to comfort him he had just tell him that he had make a mistake, and now he had to repaired it, Lance had had fate in him. Now was his turn to trust him, but that didn’t make the wait any easier, he didn’t like not knowing where he was, he wasn’t some controller freak or something, he was scared, every time he cared about someone, something terrible happen, when Shiro had left to the Kerberos mission he had been captured and tortured, when they had been fighting against Zarkon Shiro had died, when he left for the blade of Marmora, Lance had almost died or died no one was sure. He stilled had problems with that fact, because no one had told him, he found out when he accidentally had connected with Red, he was pretty sure no one knew he knew.

Lance didn’t know at least, or he liked to hope for that, but he also knew that Lance wasn’t stupid, and that he wasn’t the best actor in the world, so he had probably noticed the way he looked at him when he found out, the fear in his sight, the regret… that strange feeling he got that just by look at other thing for one second Lance was going to disappear. Finally, he bumped into Pidge, literally.  
“Hey brave leader, something on your mind?” She was making fun of him.  
“Nothing that concerns you” She smirked.   
“I was looking for you actually, I need to show you something” She started to walk, and he just followed her. It was amazing how she knew he was going to follow her.  
“What is it?” He asked when they arrived at a room with a lot of computers, Katie was there.  
“We found an exit point” Katie had this proud smile in her face, she was really like Pidge in some ways.  
“Excellent…” He didn’t know what to say next, it’s not like he knew how all this trans-reality stuff worked.  
“That’s all you have to say?” Katie laughed when Pidge asked that. He shrugged, uncertain. “Unbelievable”  
“There is one small problem with this point” Katie said, she did something in the computer and suddenly Hira was there in the screen. “This is a camera that they haven’t found yet, this room is what we like to call the throne room, Hira spends a lot of time there…”  
“The point is there, isn’t it?” He interrupted her, gaining to annoyed looks. He mumbled a quietly ‘sorry’.  
“As I was saying, Hira spends a lot of time there, because the point is there, we are certain that she knows about the existence of the pint, and that’s why she is there. We have no way to know if she knows that you are here, but I’m betting that the moment she knows she is going to try to capture you and make you non-cogs, so she can use your whatever robot, to invade other realities”  
“Pidge can we just burst there and leave?” She looked at him like she thought he was stupid or something. “It was an idea…”  
“A bad one, we don’t even know what is in there, and you haven’t heard all” He wished that someday there weren’t bad and worst news. “Since we been here, the alteans had upgraded the hoktrils, what once was a difficult chirurgical procedure now is just as simple as… throwing a rock.” She seemed satisfied with her explanation, but Keith hadn’t understood. He just stayed there. “Just put him the images, maybe that way he understands” Pidge told her double.  
“This one was is from the last mission we had, before we hide” Katie said.

It was a lot of people, they seemed in peace, just discussing or having a meeting, and then an explosion, like fifty alteans soldiers appeared, in their hands weird pieces of technology that looked like spheres, he looked closer, the soldiers started to throw the spheres, in contact with a human they transform in something similar to a centipede, that crawled in the victim until it was in position, when that things arrived at the base of the neck they made something, and the people stooped moving, then they stood straight and didn’t move anymore. He remembered how that scientist repeat again and again, how the non-cogs were not slaves, because they had no will, the strange spheres where hoktrils, that suck the will of their victims. He was horrified, there was chaos, screams and the sound of gunshots, but it was usless, the spheres where small and it was difficult to aim them, people stopped the fired when they realized that every time, they fired, they hurt their own, more than help them. In the end, more than a half stayed there as non-cogs, and the others manage to escape.

“After that every mission became ten times riskier, we had lost people because of that things, entire squadrons that never came back, it’s horrible… once Ty and I encounter one of our friends, we didn’t know what to do, she attacked us in command, but we couldn’t fight back, we had to leave… The alteans are using people we care about to hurt us”  
Katie was gripping the table so hard that her knuckles turned white, she had tears in the corner of her eyes. Pidge was looking down, with a regretful look in her eyes. They had made this when they had stolen that comet, they had put Earth in this situation. Now he understood Pidge, they couldn’t just leave, they had to do something, after all it was their fault.   
“Guys, Lance wants to see us” Hunk was there, he didn’t know anything of that, but he could sense something was wrong. Keith felt terrible, the youngest of them was the one that found first about this situation, it wasn’t fair, and now he had to make a decision, if tell the others about everything or keep them in the dark. But first, he had to see Lance, to see what he wanted and because he was his right-hand man, and he needed his help to make that decision. 

“Are you sure about this Lance?” Shiro said, he wanted to ask the same, when Lance had told them he was going to try and pilot Blue he hadn’t know what to say, he was proud of him to try but worried as hell, he knew that sooner or later they had to figure out that, but this felt rushed, he didn’t want to see Lance hurt again, and he knew that going into Blue was probably make him revive all, every memory with Allura or something. He wished he could protect Lance, make his pain go away, but he also knew that was not possible.   
“Yes, we need to get back home” He seems convinced and determinate. He had to have faith in him.  
“You… are so strong Lance, if you feel like… like you can’t, you know you don’t have to go all the way today” He said, Lance smiled at the compliment, and he tried to smile back, but he couldn’t his worry didn’t let him.   
“Worried about me, mullet?” He had never been so happy to hear that horrible nickname, but he couldn’t tell if it was because Lance was confident or because he was trying to ease his worry.  
“Yes” Keith said, it was the true and he deserved to known.   
“Well don’t be. I got this” He wanted to scream at him, to tell him that it was okay not being okay, that he didn’t have to pretend, but he didn’t want Lance to think that he doubted him. He watched as Blue barrier faded.  
“If you stare hard enough you might burn a hole in his back” Pidge said, he blushed a little.  
“Or his ass” Hunk said, his face erupted on fire, he wasn’t checking Lance, he was truly worried about him. But Pidge and Hunk started laughing, even Shiro smiled, that traitor.   
“Keith relax, if he said he got this he can do it, and if he can’t we be here for him” Hunk told him, he was smiling at him, trying to reassured him.   
“Yeah, don’t worry too much about him, that’s basically our job since the Garrison” Pidge said, pointing at Hunk and herself. 

He wanted to know how Lance was at the Garrison, he had a terrible memory, he remembered his first day but not to clearly, he remembered all the fights and every single time he got send to Iverson, he remembered Shiro disappointed looks, but no matter how hard he tried, he didn’t remember Lance very clearly, he had this feeling that yes they were in the same class, that someday Lance stopped showing in the fighter class, and then everything was blurry, Shiro’s disappearance, he drooping school, and then the shack. But he remembered everything after seeing Shiro again, how Lance how got out of nowhere, claiming that he was going to be the one saving Shiro.  
He remembered how annoying he thought he was, all that rivalry, and then… the stupid bonding moment, Shiro once asked him if that was the moment he realized his feelings for Lance, but he was dense, like really dense, in that moment he only thought that he had misjudged Lance, that he wasn’t the asshole he thought he was, after that moment he started to pay more attention to Lance, he discovered he was caring, that he always looked after others, he tried to cheer everyone when they were down, he wasn’t perfect obviously, he liked to flirt with anyone that he found attractive, he liked to piss him off, or bother him in what he learned to identify as a ‘friendly way’, he had self-esteem issues, but he was brave enough to talk about it. He put his life in the line for others, something amazing and terrifying at the same time… And just like that, someday, after he left for the Blade of Marmora, he realized he didn’t pay attention to Lance because he found him intriguing, he watched Lance because without notice he had fallen in love with him. 

“Guys… I think something is wrong” He didn’t like Hunk’s voice tone.  
“The barriers shouldn’t be up” Pidge said.

He was so lost in his thoughts that he hadn’t realized that. He also hadn’t realized that a presence in him mind was trying to be heard. For a moment he thought it might be Black, but the presence wasn’t like that, it was familiar but distant… it was Red, Red had been trying to communicate with him. When he focused his attention, he only got this feeling that it was too late, that Lance was going to get hurt, and that he couldn’t do anything about it.  
He felt like that moment in Haggar’s mind, when all his teammates disappeared, he felt the same anguish like when Pidge’s hand slipped of his. He was again powerless, not knowing how Lance was, and he couldn’t go to where he was, but this time he couldn’t even attack the barrier, he couldn’t fight until his hands burned, the only thing he could do was stay there and watch. 

“Lance, is everything alright?” Shiro was talking to a modern version of a walkie talkie, that the rebels insisted they should use to communicate. The other end was silent.  
“Blue wouldn’t hurt him, he is just probably to focus, or he just fall asleep, or something” Hunks panicked rambling wasn’t helping.  
“But what if Haggar’s entity managed to poison Blue, we can’t be sure that just because she is dead her magic is gone” Keith looked at Pidge, hoping to see if that was just a cruel joke in a bad moment, but she seemed to be seriously considering it.   
“That’s not possible” But he was really not convinced about it.  
“Yeah, it’s not possible, is not like her magic had linked to some strange maligned force in this reality… Oh my god! What if that happened!? What if the alteans found the lions and infected them! What if…!” He appreciated Hunk’s concern for Lance, but his thoughts were making him nervous.   
“Keith…” Shiro was looking at him, concerned by him and Lance. He could see his unasked question.  
“Red tried to warn me, but I didn’t listen her” He was ashamed.  
“What!?” Pidge screamed.  
“Is Lance…?” Hunk started but Keith interrupted him.  
“Don’t you dare to finish that sentence Hunk” Lance wasn’t going to die, and he felt so good when Red and Black presence confirmed it. “I don’t know what is happening but he would get out of it” He has to. 

Minutes passed and the barrier was still up, he refused to lose hope but it was difficult, at some point Hunk had started crying, and Pidge sat on the floor her head in her hands. Shiro stood by his side, putting a comforting arm in his shoulder, looking at times at him. But Keith only had eyes for Blue’s barrier, in any moment it was going to disappeared and they knew that Lance was okay, but why was that moment taking so long? The barrier flickered, and he started to move forward when Hunk rushed, he was inside Blue in seconds, Keith stood there frozen, he wanted to go but he didn’t know if he could handle it.  
“Hunk? How is Lance?” Shiro asked.  
“Lance! Oh no, Lance!” He tired as hard as he could to not think the worst. It sounded like Hunk was moving around, but he wasn’t saying anything useful, so he took the modern walkie talkie from Shiro’s hands. Pidge was looking at him scared.  
“Hunk! Calm down, tell us what you see” He needed to know. He refused to believed that Lance was gone.  
“He is, he is… he is breathing” Hunk said sounded relieved, but he forgot that no one knew Lance wasn’t conscious. Either way that statement alleviated his heart.  
“Is… is he hurt?” He dared to ask.  
“He doesn’t seem so… Lance buddy, c’mon wake up” He could picture everything, Hunk caressing Lance, looking worried at him, speaking softly. “Lance! Buddy, oh my god, thank goodness you are awake!” He let go the breath he didn’t know he was holding, Lance was okay, and Hunk was rambling again.  
“I… I’m… sorry” Lance sounded so small and hurt, all the past ‘what ifs’ resounded in his mind.   
“What happened? Are you hurt?” Hunk passed to relieved to concerned “Lance… What’s wrong?”  
“She didn’t love me” Keith swore he heard Lance heart broke again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hoped you had liked this, I’m a bit traumatized with the ‘bonding moment’ so I decided to take it in another way. I still don’t know how long this will be, but I’m trying to not make it too long so it doesn’t become boring.  
> Thanks for reading I hope you are interested in the story (because I’m sorry for the lack of romance)


	7. I'm sorry Allura

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance has to think about all that he saw in Blue, Hunk is there to confort him. After that he talks with Keith about the alteans and the war.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was the one that had cost me the most. And yesterday I realized that I only have one week and a half of vacation, so I need to finish this.  
> I hope you like the chapter anyways, this is finally getting to the end point.  
> (As always, sorry for any mistakes)

I'm sorry Allura

Lance woke up, he stood there, with his eyes open, looking at nothing, he didn’t feel like getting up today, maybe he could just stay there, contemplating his life… He felt a mental purr, Blue was apologizing, but he wasn’t mad at her, he imagined that if Red could talk, she would say something like ‘What a strange dude you are’ or something, but he could only feel her surprise, incomprehension and indignation. She was really temperamental, but she was caring as well. He felt strangely at peace.  
“Lance, buddy can I come in” Hunk asked.  
“Sure man, come in” He sat on his bed, he was smiling a little, a real smile, no some fake smile to not worry his friends.   
“How are you feeling?” Hunk had a tray with food in it.  
“Fine actually, a lot better seeing that” His best friend smiled.  
“Something good about this place is that they have human food everywhere” He started to eat, it was delicious.  
“You don’t mind the alien ingredients Hunk… I can’t believe the things you can do with things that no one of us would consider edible” Hunk laughed a little, he always was happy to see people enjoying his food.  
“You are right, it’s amazing the world of possibilities that different ingredients can open” Lance finished his food. And put aside the tray.  
“I guess this amazing breakfast in bed is not random” He already knew that but it was funny to see how Hunk get a little shaken.  
“We are worried about you, what happened in Blue yesterday?” He seemed very interested in that, and Lance wasn’t sure if he wanted to talk about it, he knew he had too, but he felt like it was too soon. “But you don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to, I just want to know how are you”. He did it anyway.  
“She… she showed me Allura’s memories” He almost found comically the way Hunk’s eyes opened. Hunk remained silent, waiting for him to go on. “And well… is not something new really, we all knew that I knew that, but… I don’t know, confirmation hurts?” He didn’t know how to explain what he was feeling, he wasn’t even sure of what he was feeling.  
“Is that the reason why you said that when I found you?” Hunk was embracing him, not too much so they could still talk face to face.  
“Yeah… And you know? I felt horrible, because she was supposed to be the love of my life, but finding that, I thought that it would be horrible, like… All my life I thought that I would find someone, someone which I would spend the rest of my days, and when I was feeling down the thought of that someone whoever it was not loving me back, was terrible… But now that I know it doesn’t feel like I thought… Is there something wrong with me Hunk?”   
He was terrified, his mind was going to dark places he didn’t want too, he felt like a completely jerk, finally getting the girl he wanted and two days after she passed, she didn’t love her anymore? No, that was not right, he still loves her, doesn’t he? Maybe he never thought he could be something for her, so when it happened, he just never believed, and how… No, that wasn’t right either, he needed to stop thinking. But he couldn’t because maybe he wasn’t enough, maybe he was wrong thinking he could ever be with someone like her, he was just this human boy and she was a space princess… _‘The lance who knows exactly who he is and what he’s got to offer’_. He clung on that words, if Keith hadn’t said that he would probably never show up to his date with Allura, not matter it was in his own house. He knew Keith was right. If Allura had decided to date him, was because she saw something in him, maybe they didn’t have enough time to figure it what exactly that something was, but it wasn’t his fault, life can be cruel sometimes. He felt Hunk rubbing his back softly.  
“Why are you not saying something?” He questioned Hunk.  
“Because you know there is nothing wrong with you, and I know you Lance, if I have told you that in that moment, you wouldn’t have listen… You have probably thought that I was lying or saying it just to make you feel better. So, I just waited until you reach the same conclusion by yourself, and looked, didn’t take you long. And you know if you had gone too far, I would have said something eventually.”  
“It’s scary how well you know me” He said, and Hunk chuckle.   
“I’m your best friend, I’m supposed to know you” He felt something warm spread to his body, the sensation of feeling loved.   
“Thank you, Hunk” He meant it, and his best friend knew it. “I’m bored, what’s new in this reality?”  
“Actually, I think Keith was looking for you, something about leader and right-hand man stuff.” Hunk wasn’t paying attention when Keith had said what he wanted Lance for, but Lance didn’t mind at all “You would have laugh of how he was after I carried you out of Blue, he had this face like wanting to help and knowing that if he tried to do it, he probably fucked it all. Poor guy.”  
“What a leader we have” He said getting up.  
“C’mon Lance, don’t be like that, he is trying his best” He admired how Hunk could always defend anyone if he felt it was the right thing to do. He remembered how after his initial shock he had stood for Keith when Allura was treating him like an enemy.  
“And his best is awesome” Hunk looked at him with this ‘please don’t be sarcastic right now’ face “I’m serious, he handled all this leader thing pretty well, he had help obviously but, man he did it amazing”   
“Okay, okay I believe you, as much as I love hearing you talk wonders about Keith, so Pidge and I can bother you later, he really needs to speak with you” Lance rolled his eyes and said goodbye.

He went to the place Keith was mostly like was. And he was not wrong, there he was, hitting some training bot with everything he had. He was using his bayard, but he could see the Marmora knife in his pants, and judging by the sweat in his shirt, he had been there for a while.   
“He is being there for like two hours” He jolted, he hadn’t realized Akira’s and Keith’s voices where identical.  
“Really? Then he is just starting, that dude can be there for five hours the freak.” He someday had asked Keith why he did that, and he had answered that it helped him clear his mind. He had wanted to ask what could he possibly be thinking spend five hours in a row training, but they weren’t close enough in that moment.  
“Isn’t that unhealthy?” Akira seemed a little concerned.  
“Tell him that” He started to ponder if he should go down there.  
“I wanted to ask you something” Damn, the guy looked really uncomfortable, and Lance recalled the discussion he heard before Leandro left.   
“Sure, what is it?” He wished that it wasn’t something personal, beside what it looked like, he really didn’t like it to get into couple’s problems, he thought that was something private and personal, and well in this case, it was worse because it was Keith’s double and his double.  
“Would you get mad if someone hide something from you for your own protection?” Akira looked like torture would be easier for him than asked that.  
“Are you using me as a more accessible boyfriend?”  
An explosion deviated their attention, Keith had accidentally summoned the other form of his bayard, and had blown a hole in the training bot. He was looking at the hole with huge eyes, like he hadn’t meant to do it.   
“Nice one, mullet, we don’t even have money to pay that” He said, Keith looked at him like a deer caught in headlights. When he realized that Akira was with him, he paled, it was impressive if you take into consideration that his skin was already pale.  
“I’m sorry, I will fix it” He said. Lance approached the damaged bot.  
“Keith, the thing is dead, I don’t think you can repair this, I don’t even think Pidge and Hunk can fix it” Keith was ashamed, his face was red, and he was looking at the floor.   
“What kind of weapon is that? We stole this training bot from the alteans, our weapons didn’t even scratch it” If they weren’t in war, Lance would probably be worried about the fact that Akira’s eyes were light up and almost shinny when he inspected the broken bot.   
“I’m not sure, but is powerful” Everyone had been so surprised when suddenly Keith had blown the door in the galran battle cruiser, because Keith didn’t look like the type of person that liked to use guns, he preferred swords or knifes. But the again, he wasn’t the sword type and his bayard had transformed into an altean sword.  
“I have to inform my team about that, see you” Akira seemed to have some kind of revelation and left. Lance and Keith were alone again, something that was happening a lot lately, not that he minded.  
“So… want to tell me why you decided to murder the poor bot? Also, Hunk said you wanted to talk with me?” Keith untransformed his bayard, and groaned.  
“I… I didn’t want to do it, it just that… that…” Lance raised an eyebrow, while Keith struggled to say whatever he had to say “Hearing you refer yourself as his “more accessible boyfriend” kind of deconcentrate me.”  
“You were eavesdropping our conversation?” He didn’t want to make fun of Keith, but he was making him hard, it was obvious that he had been joking, but well if Keith couldn’t follow a simple cheer there was no hope.   
“You talk to loud, okay? I didn’t mean to… to hear and to murder the bot.” He was really embarrassed.  
“Hey, relax I’m messing with you.” He smiled, he was finding that being relaxed and happy was really easy with Keith, they always avoided the serious topics, and just be. Not that it was the best, but he liked it, for now. “Anyway, you wanted to talk with me”  
“I did?” Lance tried not thought how adorable Keith looked when he was confused.   
“Hunk said that” Keith was thinking hard, like he was just catching up with everything that had happened in the last minutes.   
“Oh… Yes, I did tell him that” He got serious all sudden.  
“What is it?” Lance didn’t like, when Keith seemed to be struggling with something.   
“I had some new information about the status of the alteans… but I don’t know if I should tell the team or not, Pidge already know she found out first” He looked at him, expecting him to tell him what was that information that bother him. “I’m not sure if I want you to know”  
“Keith, you can’t do that, whatever it is, is better if we all know, hiding information was never ended in something good” Lance said.  
“It’s a tactic”   
“Against your enemies, sure, but we are your team Keith, we are here for you, I thought you knew that” Lance was hurt, he didn’t like to think that Keith was going back, believing he could do everything by himself.  
“I know what you are Lance it’s just that… we want to help, we have seen our doubles, they are similar to us, they even feel the same things, but helping them is too risky”  
“Just tell me, whatever it is we can figure it out together” He put his hand in Keith’s arm, to let him know that he was there, that he could trust him.  
“I don’t want to lose you” Keith said, looking right into his eyes.  
“You are not going to lose us, we have even been back from the dead a few times, if we survived and explosion capable of blow half Earth, we can do this” He could see the way the other was struggling, and Lance begin to wonder what could be so terrible, that made his teammate behave like that. 

Keith started talking, he explained everything, from the moment Pidge tried to explain, to the images he saw, Lance was astonished, he never thought that there could be eviler than galra experimentation, but this was far way worst. He couldn’t imagine how it would feel like to fight against someone you knew, someone you consider a friend, just because an evil alien race had made them their mindless slave. And because they were alteans they had not guarantee that their armors could protect them, even worse the alteans could use their own technology against them. And then he realized, Keith had fight against someone he cared about, he had told him, one day on earth, when Lance had asked how he ended with a Shiro’s clone dead body in the first place, he had told him about the fight, how messed up everything was, how scared he had been, how he thought it was the end, how terrified he felt when he believed he had lost Shiro again and this time for sure. He wanted to hug Keith in that moment, but he knew that the other one didn’t like having his personal space invade so suddenly.

“What do you think?” Keith asked, he was kind of pouting and it was kind of endearing.   
“I can’t believe the tinny one found first” It wasn’t the smartest thing to say, but it was the first thing that came to his mind.  
“I don’t think Pidge appreciated being refer as ‘the tinny one’” He said with a small smile.  
“Yeah, she will probably punch me, or electrocute me, she hadn’t done that in a while” He was gaining time, he knew that Keith was waiting for his actual answer, but there were many things to consider. He believed that it was the right thing to do, help this Earth, help their doubles, but at the same time he didn’t want to imagine what horrible outcome that could have. He didn’t dare to picture how it would be fight against his teammates or that his teammates had to fight him.  
“She only electrocuted you once” That wasn’t exactly true, but Keith didn’t have to know that.  
“They… I think they killed themselves, before becoming non-cogs, I’m not saying is the best option, but we know that we can’t stay here doing nothing when we can help” He remembered the discussion Akria and Leandro had, and he hoped Keith understood.  
“That’s out of question, we didn’t come this far to kill ourselves if something goes wrong, we are not the Blades, we don’t leave anyone behind just because they didn’t stick to a plan…” Lance didn’t knew that, he knew that the Blades were a little extreme but he hadn’t consider, Keith always refused to talk much about his time with them, maybe it was because of that.  
“Okay, we will not do that, but you have to tell the others what we are facing, and you know that they will want to help anyway, maybe Pidge and Hunk can come up with something that can… I don’t know block the hoktrils or something”  
“I hate this, anytime we beat the maximum threat another one appears, and we can’t just ignore it, can we?” He seemed so tired, and Lance felt bad, after all they were teenagers, young adults at max, they shouldn’t have to be dealing with this type of things, life or death decisions, intergalactic wars, evil alien races, mind control and other stuff. They were supposing to be having mental breakdowns because they didn’t know what to put for a party, or dying by exams, living of coffee, and drinking underage or something, that should be their problems, not this.   
“Yeah, we can’t and we won’t, not now, not ever” Keith took a deep breath, looked at him and he knew, they were going to fight.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m trying even if I don’t know if I’m doing this right. I focus a lot in Lance’s and Hunk’s relationship because it always bugs me that they said they were best friends but in the last season they didn’t show it as I would like to.  
> Next chapter is Keith’s POV and I discovered that it’s more difficult to write him, when I thought Lance was going to be more difficult.   
> Anyway, I think I might be to post Keith’s chapter today, but I’m not so sure.  
> Thanks for reading~ (and leaving kudos, or comments, or just by getting this far)


	8. And everything went straight to hell

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Finally both teams try to defeat Hira, by infiltrating in the altean base.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so happy I finally could write this chapter (I sometimes think this was the only reason I write the entirely thin)  
> Hope you like it.

And everything went straight to hell

“And you think this will work?” Pidge said, they were again in the meeting table, checking the plans for the strike against Hira.  
“Probably, I mean yes” Keith was nervous, he wasn’t really sure of anything anymore.  
“If Hira already knows that you are here, this plan would not work” Katie said. Ty was nodding behind her.  
“If she knows it doesn’t make any difference, she still wouldn’t know which one us is the real one, sorry, the correct one” Akira spoke determined, and Keith wonder if that is how he looked like, ready for action, checking all the possibilities, did he scowl like that?  
“Then she only has to capture us all, which is not difficult if we are these separate from each other” Katie wasn’t convinced of the plan, and Pidge support her.  
“Also, Leandro hasn’t come back, he was supposed to be here, three hours ago. I don’t feel good discussing this without him” Ty had been saying that since they reunited to plan everything.  
“I’m sure he is fine, maybe he finished earlier and went to find some supplies, so he could upgrade his guns” Akira was failing in maintain a calm look, his leg was bouncing rapidly.   
“I still believe we need to try to make sure of that” Ty wasn’t interesting in anything else than know if his best friend was okay.  
“You can tell us where that place is, the one with supplies and Hunk and I can go find him” Lance proposed, had Lance haven’t heard all he told him before? about not wanting to lose him? Even if he thought Keith was referring to the whole team, he was meaning Lance specifically that moment.   
“That’s too risky, if we are hopping Hira doesn’t know about you guys, going outside sure will let her know that” Akira said.

Keith was getting desperate, there was no way they all could agree, Shiro wasn’t helping either, he had been quiet all the meeting, like he was analyzing them or something and it was starting to freak him out. Lance was still trying to convince Hunk to make something against the hoktrils just to be saying again and again that it wasn’t possible because they didn’t know how that things worked, and all attempts to neutralized could ended or not working, or hurting someone. Pidge and Katie spend their time saying all that was wrong with their plan and fighting because of the cloaking the lions had, Ty was trying to make them stop fighting and support every single thing they said about how the plan could go wrong. This wasn’t working at all. They needed a fucking miracle, and as if he was summoned, Leandro enter the building, just he was not alone, Sven and Slav were with him. He heard Shiro groan loud and clear.   
“Amazing! Our friends of the other reality come to visit us, I thought it was a one-time thing. After you left, I calculated that your reality had a 0.37% probability to stop existing in the near future, is that what happened? Have you come here because your reality was destroyed?” Slav was already rambling, looking at each one of them with extremely dedication, passing between them, poking them, and saying things about probabilities and possibilities. Sven looked tired, but resigned, Shiro in the other hand, seemed to be looking at a ghost.   
“Why did you bring them?” Akira was trying to stop Slav from taking one of his hair.   
“We have visitors from another reality, I thought the best person to come was the one obsessed with realities” Leandro mumble a quick apology before taking Akira by the waist, and kiss him. It was a quick peak, but Keith brain almost malfunctioned. He avoided visual contact with anyone for about five minutes. His traitor brain bringing all the times Lance and he had been left alone.  
“Hey I know Slav is a pain in the ass but maybe he can help” Did Lance had to whisper that directly in his ear? Did he know how intimate that looked and felt?   
“Lance is good to see you are okay” Sven was right next to Lance, and Lance was smiling, he thought that seeing him made that admire eyes to Sven would bother him, but he was happy, he remembered that Sven had taken a shot from Lance.  
“Thanks to you in a way. How are you?” Lance put a hand in Sven’s chest, the exact point where he had been injured. Keith felt a little bit pathetic, he was so deep into Lance, that seeing him interact in that way with someone didn’t make him jealous or anything, it made him sad and wishful, if only Lance saw him different.  
“Good, the only pain in my life is that thing” He pointed at Slav, that was measuring Pidge and Katies hair, and was asking for a blood sample, which both girls refused several times. It was strange seeing Slav so confident, he was still a weirdo but at least he wasn’t paranoiac as hell, like their Slav.   
“Sven I would gladly inform you that…” Slav started, but his companion interrupted him.  
“We have the probability of being best friends in the 26% of the realities, 38.4% where I actually like you, and a scary 2.3% where we are a couple.” Shiro started coughing roughly with the last statement, he had this horrified look on his face after he stopped coughing, that couldn’t help but smile “Yes, you have said that a million time, but this is not one of that realities and judging by the reaction of that old man over there, their reality is also not one of them”   
“Can you imagine that? It would be Shiro’s worst nightmare!” Pidge was laughing merciless, and the rest of them suddenly burst into laughs as well, the only one that wasn’t laughing was Shiro, but in the he smiled and rolled his eyes.  
“Okay children, we are not here to make fun of me”   
Even after they started discussing the plan again, the mood was infinitely better, Ty wasn’t worried anymore, Akira seemed actually calm, he could feel Lance supporting him by his side, and Sven and Slav had a lot of information that helped set up the plan. 

The plan was simply, first they would be disguised as their doubles, hoping that would disconcert the alteans in some way, and they would have to split or just take some time to consider what to do, so that should give them more time. Then they were going to infiltrate the throne room and the hoktril laboratory, they were going to burn the second place to the ground, eliminate as much altean soldiers as they could, and with some luck they would try and kill Hira. It had been a really discussion about it, because killing wasn’t supposed to be the way, but all Voltron enemies were dead, by choice or not exactly, Zarkon was killed by his own crazy son, they left Lotor in the quintessence field where he died, and finally Haggar or well Honevra had decided to give her life to emend her damage to the realities. Keith himself had ended Sendak, when he almost killed Shiro. And if something their war has teach them is that if the bad guys are not dead, they are going to come back one way or another. After all the discussion they reached the agreement that if Team Voltron founded Hira first, they will not show mercy, but Keith was pretty sure that he was the only one considering the idea, so probably they would end apprehended Hira. Sven and Slav would help as strike force with some others from Guns of Gamora.  
When the meeting was over everyone went to get ready. Keith was thinking that he might train a little, when he felt Shiro’s arm in his shoulder.  
“Are you okay?” He asked. He didn’t know the answer to that question “You seemed very persistence in the killing”  
“It would be the best for them” He said, sincerely. “No matter what we did, only dead seemed to stop them”   
“You are talking about Sendak?”   
Shiro didn’t know how it felt, losing the first person he consider himself close too after his father death, he had lost Shiro not once, not twice, but three times, first with the Kerberos mission, second in the fight against Zarkon, and third when he discovered that it wasn’t Shiro the one they had rescue but a clone, an evil clone. He had almost losing him other times, when they were stuck in that planet and he pilot Black for the first time, when his consciousness was rejecting the clone’s body, and when Sendak almost murder him. He remembered how scared he had felt flying Black at max speed, so he could get in time, how if they had eliminated Sendak before he wouldn’t be threatening Shiro’s life in that moment.  
“Keith, I know is hard, and I’m sorry that you had to go through all those things because of me… But killing is not the way.” Keith didn’t have time for this.  
“You don’t have to do it if you don’t want to, but no one is going to stop me” He felt that if Hira was left alive, she would hurt them, they still didn´t knew how the hoktrils worked, and he forbid himself to think what would he do if anyone become a non-cog. He rather dies that hurt his friends.  
“I don’t think you are being very responsible right now, you are a leader Keith, the others would follow your lead. But Pidge, Hunk and Lance are not murderers, you are pushing them to become that”   
“I’m not doing that! They are free to decide what to do if they found Hira” He was probably being stubborn, but he couldn’t stand the disappointed look on Shiro more time, so he left. 

He was looking at himself in the mirror, he looked stupid with the white wig, he looked horrible, and he couldn’t move too much without feeling the damn thing slip a little, it was uncomfortable. Why had he agreed to this? he should have insisted saying that he was a better warrior than his double, so him would have to suffer with the wig, because it was impossible, how was he supposed to tie his hair with a wig? But he had sacrificed himself because Pidge and Lance didn’t feel like cutting their hair. He envied Hunk so much, he only had to leave behind his bandana, and since Shiro was going to be monitoring everything in the facility, he didn’t have to disguise. He looked at Akira’s jacket, it was very similar to his own, just a little longer, and with some fluffy stuff in the neck. The only thing that didn’t bother him at all where the glasses, they looked like ski visors or something, they were pretty cool, he put the motorcycle gloves at the end, trying to get comfortable with them, but he missed having his fingers free.   
When he arrived at the main entrance, everyone was already there, Akira was looking at him with an approbatory look. At his right was Katie or Pidge, he wasn’t so sure, because at his left was exactly the same person, both of them had Pidge haircut, but Katies clothes and piercings, his rounded glasses had now green lenses, so he couldn’t see at their eyes, why everyone was so obsessed with glasses there? The next ones were Ty or Hunk, but it looked like Ty had replicated himself, they had strange yellow visors in their hands. Finally, Lance or Leandro, he knew immediately which one was Lance, he was impressed because Lance had now an eye with a different color, but he was being to obvious, or he thought so, because he looked at him with a shocked face, while the other one had this face that said ‘my boyfriend looks better’ both had blue googles in the top of their heads. So, in the end his team was at the right side, Pidge was uncomfortable in her new clothes and accessories, Hunk was smiling gently and Lance was still shocked. He approached them.   
“How did you know it was them?” Katie asked, crossing her arms.  
“I know my team” He answered.  
“Is because Leandro here was looking at him and still thinking his boyfriend is more handsome, no matter this guy looks exactly the same.” Ty said.  
“They might look the same, but… Nope Akira is way more handsome” Leandro said, confident, Akira blushed, but maintain a stoic face.   
“They are the same…” Katie groaned “But we are not having this conversation again”  
“How is the wig?” Lance asked him.  
“You two own me a big one” It was slipping again, he could feel it. Lance and Pidge send him apologetic looks. “And how… your eye?”  
“Contac lenses, apparently Leandro’s sometimes likes to have matching color eyes, so he had one blue and one yellow, but he thought that it would be really strange if he went on a mission with them, so I ended up using one, is not uncomfortable, and I’m still had my aim intact” He blinked several times, and Keith smiled to, he was looking into Lance eyes, no matter what he looked fine, more than fine actually.  
“Good…” Was his brilliant response.   
“Everyone is ready” Sven said, behind him were 20 armed and ready Guns of Gamora members. Everyone nodded. “Let’s do this”

Whenever they were in mission it was not as fun or exciting as it could be. They were waiting for transportation, he was supposed to use, the red motorcycle, because apparently Akira had more than one, he was unsure, he preferred to drive something he knew, Shiro had checked the bike and had assure him that he would be perfectly capable of piloting that thing, he wasn’t convinced, but he didn’t have a choice. After ten terrible minutes of waiting, he received the order to go, he started the engine, and surprisingly it was very easy to use, the other motorcycle pass by his side and he started to follow it, he could hear the rest of his teams and the other team by his ear, with the devices they had. He drove through unknown streets, Earth was a little bit different in this reality, more modern, and with a lot of neon sign and lights.  
“You need to chance the bike to suspension mode, we are going up” Akira said.  
“What!?” They were going to what!?  
“Just push the button by your index finger, when I told you” He waited, already feeling the button, when they started to go directly towards a black wall, or some strange building, he wasn’t sure, he started to thought if ‘going up’ was literally. “Push it in three… one, two…” Akira’s bike started to go up, using the wall as his new floor “Three!”  
Keith would be lying if he said he didn’t close his eyes when he pushed the button, but when he didn’t feel a crash, he opened, he was going up, and he couldn’t feel the difference.  
“Why Keith always gets the cool stuff?” He heard Lance asked.  
“Because he is the coolest of us?” Hunk answered, and he was right, once he accustomed to the fact that he was driving vertical, he pushed the accelerator, passing Akira easily, he even started to make some curves, looking time to time to see how the view was.  
“I guess you don’t have this type of transportation in your reality” Akira commented.  
“We have some stuff, but nothing like this, that fucking cliff jump would be so much easier with one of those” He remembered how he had sacred Hunk, Pidge and Lance when he did that when they rescue Shiro.  
“I thought you liked that jump” Shiro said.  
“I like it, but it scared me, I wasn’t so sure I could do it, the first time I tried it”   
“Please tell me that first time wasn’t with us” He decided not answer Pidge that “Keith! C’mon!” He laughed.  
“Okay, get serious, we are here” Sven said.

He heard the surprised gasp of his teammates before he saw it, it was the Garrison, it had blue light everywhere, the alteans had fusion their technology with the Garrison facilities, now it looked more than ever like an ultra-equipped military base. There were a lot of altean ships, and a lot of altean soldiers, he could identify them easily because they had armors, similar to their paladin’s armors. It was going to be a hard battle, he summoned his bayard. He got off the motorcycle and followed Akira. This was supposed to be an infiltration mission, they didn’t want to be spotted if possible.   
“There is a 23% of probability, that you fall climbing that watchtower if you don’t secure your coat properly” He wasn’t sure what was happening “Don’t look at me like that, this as amazing reality, but things could still go wrong if you get too confident”   
“Al right he will do it” He could distinguish the voice of Leandro from Lance, the same way he didn’t confused the other’s voices, partially because the glasses he had weren’t just normal glasses, because they were like super computers, helping him move through the dark, and pointing in a corner of his vision who was talking and partially because even after seeing retired times how similar they were, something always told him who it was.   
“I´m in position, there are a lot of guards, but I think I’ll be able to guide you guys” Lance said, he didn’t know where he was exactly, but knowing he was there, gave him confidence. They could do this.   
An hour later, Hunk and Ty where in the laboratory of the hoktrils, they where trying to understand how they worked, while Pidge and Katie, where trying to hack the security. They had decided to split that way, so a paladin was always with their double. The only once separate, where Leandro and Lance, because Leandro didn’t have and sniper rifle, he was currently helping Guns of Gamora, incapacitating guards. Akira and him were the striking team, the others would find them a way directly to Hira.  
“I can’t believe it worked!” Katie exclaimed.  
“What!?” Ty asked.  
“Some guard enter just a second ago, and they didn’t move for like five seconds, you should have seen their faces, they were so confused” Pidge explained.  
“It was hilarious” Katie was laughing quietly.  
“Okay guys good news and bad news” Pidge said. “First, I have a potential location of Hira, second, I have two potential locations of Hira, so you want to go together or split?”   
“Split”   
Akira say too fast, Keith didn’t consider that a great idea, but Katie was already giving them indications. He suddenly was alone in an altean base, fortunately, the Garrison of this reality wasn’t to different. Apparently, Hira was in Iverson headquarters, he knew the path by memory, thanks to all the times he was sent there. He paid special attention to Lance comments, since he was his eyes in there, in a moment Lance focused entirely on him, because he was closer to his objective than Akira. He told Akira to wait. Keith followed Lance instructions, and he avoided a dozen guards at least, there were a few times when he didn’t have a choice or rather he decided to not have a choice, Lance form time to time asked him to hide for an undefined amount of time, but Keith couldn’t stay still for long, and ended getting into a fight, he fought as fast as he could, ambushing the guards so they didn’t have time to use the hoktrils, sometimes he felt like a gust of wind behind him, Lance would apologize after those times, he had just shot one of the spheres , he didn’t mind it he was confident that Lance wouldn’t let one of those things get him.   
“Everything is ready to blow this thing” Hunk informed “We are getting out”   
“You have been evading cameras perfectly, but now they are on a loop, you can focus on something else” Pidge reported “We are getting out too”  
“The Guns had already secured the fallen guards, we checked, there are not civilians here, Slav managed to find the fragment of the comment, he is going to steal it and then get out” Leandro seemed to be worried, even if everything he said was good news. “I can’t contact Akira for some reason” That was the reason.  
“I can’t see him either” Lance said.   
Keith waited, he couldn’t move right now, but he glanced a little to the hallway and it didn’t seem to be anyone nearby, so he decided to move. Iverson headquarters were right in front of him, he looked through the open door, and there she was, Hira was watching some type of hologram of something, she didn’t look armed or alert. He could end this now.  
“Keith… Are you looking at Hira?” Lance asked.  
“Yes” He whispered so quietly that he doubted he even produced a sound.  
“I have a clean shot, I can do this.”   
He imagined Lance out there, with his rifle pointing directly at Hira, he wouldn’t miss, everything would stop but he couldn’t stop thinking of Shiro’s words, about becoming a murderer, he knew Shiro wasn´t exactly wrong, every one of them had killed a lot of galras, but never that directly, always in the heat of battle, never a precalculated assassination. He was about to tell Lance that he had this, when he heard a gunshot, his eyes immediately focused on Hira, but she only moved a little, like the sound had surprised her.   
“We been discovered!” Katie shouted.  
And after that the sound of explosions filled the place, gun shots and battle sounds. Hira looked directly at him, he summoned his weapon at the same time she launched at him. She was fast and strong, Keith had to fight defensive all the time, not even a second to try and make a strike. He could hear steps in the hallway, he had Hira’s sword to close to his face, he was trying to repel her but he could feel that any time his muscles were going to give up, he just wished however was coming was an ally. When he was about to lose the encounter two simultaneous gun shots send Hira flying to the other side of the room. 

“Run! My guns can only push her!” He started to run after Leandro, he felt his legs on fire, but he didn’t care, he saw fire, and destruction everywhere, thankfully everything he saw screamed altean. They arrived at the watchtower, where the others where having a huge battle, he went thought there, brandishing his sword at anything that wasn’t familiar. He heard occasionally gun shots too close to him, the damn spheres were annoying, but none had got to any of his teammates. When everything was over, he made a quick check on everyone, Lance and Akira weren’t there. He quickly climbed the watchtower, because judging by the faces of Pidge and Hunk, Lance was still up there. But when he got there, only Lance’s bayard was there.

“Lance! Lance answered me!” But Lance coms were dead “No, please no… not him… not this again”  
He got confirmation of Lance disappearance moments later.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Did I mention I like Klangst?  
> Thank you for reading (I really don't know how I'm going to end this, but by this moment I'm enjoying writting this a lot)
> 
> Thank you for reading n.n


	9. Looking for you

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith is desperate he needs to find Lance, but the others are worried about him. Everyone find shocking news about Akira and Leandro.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In this chapter there are like a lot of italics so:  
>  _If all the text is in italics "Including dialogue"_ <\- Is Keith remembering something that happened.  
> “ _Only dialogue_ ” Not the text <\- The italic is a dialogue passing in the screen, and the normal text are Keith thoughts or description of what is happening in the screen.  
> There is a part when both of those thing mix, so I hope is still understandable.   
> (Sorry for any mistakes I hope you enjoy this)

Looking for you

“Keith, you need to stop” He felt like he was in a strange dream, like if somehow, he was reliving Shiro’s second disappearance, one moment he was there and the other he was gone. He was desperate, that time he had never lost hope, but this time, every moment without knowing something, he felt more and more hopeless.

_“Keith!” Pidge was right by his side, he hadn’t realized he was screaming._  
“He is gone!” He was clutching Lance’s bayard, he could almost swear it felt warm, like Lance was there just a few moments ago. “We need to find him”  
“Hunk, Lance is not here, did he told you something about moving?” Pidge was calm, and he couldn’t stand it.  
“Don’t be stupid Pidge, he wouldn’t left without this” He shoved de bayard in her chest.  
“Don’t talk to her like that! We know you are worried, but so are we!” Hunk said, he sounded mad and worried. Pidge had a frown and seemed angry at him. He needed to calm down.  
“I’m…” He was about to apologize when she put a hand in his mouth, and made a signal, telling him to listen.  
“Lea, What’s wrong?” Ty was speaking, he looked and saw him and Leandro next to the motorcycles they had hidden earlier… But there was only one.   
“Akira’s bike is gone, like him” He could only see Leandro’s back but his voice told him he was hurt.  
“That doesn’t mean anything, he probably just retried, or went straight to base, because he was worried you know he kind be a little paranoid” Ty put his hand in the other’s shoulder, but he just shrugged it off.   
“That means everything! ¿¡Cómo pude ser tan estúpido!? He was behaving strange, I knew something was wrong with him! And know he is suddenly missing!?” Keith was pretty sure, Leandro was crying in that moment.  
“You need to calm down” Now Ty was shaking him, like if that way he could pour some sense into him.   
“Tell me… Tell my Ty, that you haven’t think the same… that he could… might…” Keith could see his body shaking.  
“You can’t lose faith in him”   
“That’s not what I asked” He didn’t know what they were talking about, but he started to feel like they were losing time.  
“Yes, I have thought that. But I don’t want to, and you shouldn’t think that” He started to move, when Pidge jerked his arm, forcing him to stay.  
“How can I not? All the signs were there I just decided to ignore them… Y ahora mira lo que sucedió” Ty made Leandro looked at him.  
“He didn’t betray us” Keith felt rage invade him, and he suddenly had a perfect picture of what had happened. Lance had said he had a clean shot, and suddenly he was gone… because Akira had shot him. Akira was a traitor; his double had hurt the person he most cared about to save Hira.  
“Yes, yes he did” Leandro was crying. 

“I can’t” He answered, it had been three days, and they still hadn’t a single clue of Lance whereabouts.  
“Exhausting yourself is not helping, you are making everyone worry” Shiro had been by his side all the time, trying to convince him to sleep, to eat and other non-essential things.  
“They are not supposed to be worrying about me, I’m fine” He couldn’t say the truth, that every time he tried to sleep his dreams became nightmares, horrible nightmares where he could see Lance, but there were always one of two options, or Lance was dying and he couldn’t do anything or Lance was a non-cog and he had to fight him. People couldn’t expect him just to sleep like it was the easiest thing in the world.   
“Pidge found something” Shiro said “But I told her she couldn’t show you anything until you have at least eaten and have a few hours of sleep”  
“You can’t do that Shiro! Is Lance life we are talking about! You can’t just put his life at risk because you think I need to eat and sleep, every moment we waste can be his last!” He tried to push Shiro, so he could get to Pidge, but he was too weak, his vision turned blurred, he was about to pass out but he couldn’t, he had to stay awake.  
“Yes, I can, and I will… I’m sorry Keith” Was the last thing he heard, before the forced unconscious state dragged him. 

_“What is it?” He asked. After hours wasted in the search, Katie had found Lance’s and Akira’s glasses, and she was running the data they had._  
“I didn’t want to believe it…” Keith looked at the screen, the one on the left was from Lance glasses, and the right was from Akira’s.  
“Akira, wait for a few minutes there, Keith is closer to his target, so I will be with him until he reaches it” It was Lance voice, he sounded calm and determinate. The image showed the roof of the watchtower, because Lance had his glasses up, so he could see through his rifle.   
“Okay, I will wait” A few moments passed, and Akira moved, he seemed to be testing if it was true that Lance wasn’t seeing him. After some tries, he started to run, it didn’t take him long to reach the watchtower, he climbed slowly, hearing Lance and Keith conversation.  
“I have a clean shot, I can do this”   
He saw Lance, he was in position, he had his finger on the trigger, he was about to shoot when Akira fired. Immediately after that the alarms sounded. Akira launched at Lance, he took his coms and smash them. He seemed to forget about the glasses and his own comms. Keith looked intensely at Lance, he was hurt, he side was bleeding, but his face was of completely bewilderment, he opened his mouth and said something, the audio had some static. 

_“What are you doing?”  
“I’m sorry I can’t let you kill Hira”_

_In that moment Akira seemed to realized he still had his coms on, so he took them and destroy them. He took Lance, but he tried to fight. Keith looked at Lance sacred face, when he figured it out, he couldn’t beat Akira, he was weak because of the shot, and the other was better than him at close combat. He could see Lance lips move, probably to make Akira stop, but his double wasn’t listening, in the end Lance fall unconscious after a hard hit against the wall.  
Keith heard Pidge gasp, and Hunk sobbed, but he was to shocked to make a reaction. In the screen he could see Akira dragging Lance body, taking him downstairs, and secure him in his motorcycle like he was some random package, not a human being. After some miles in the road, his double finally remembered the glassed. He threw his, but before he disposed Lance’s he could see his face, he was scared, regretful and lost, like didn’t knew what to do, but he had also this determination fire burning in his eyes._

_“Why?” Leandro had tears in his cheeks, and was looking at the last image with a hurtful look, he had his hand against the screen, like if that way he could connect with his loved one, and know what he was thinking._  
“We are so sorry, we didn’t know” Ty said. And Keith discovered he wasn’t mad at them, they looked like shit, he couldn’t image how they felt, being betrayed by someone they were really close.  
“You are going to help us find them, and after that I don’t care what do you do to him or in general, but we are going to leave” He was being sincere.  
“Yes, we will do everything we can. We are really sorry, you help us and we hurt you” Katie had his nose red, she had difficult to talk without crying.   
“You don’t need to apologize, you didn’t know” Shiro said.   
“It’s being a huge shock to all of us especially you guys” Hunk added.  
“Yeah, we kind of know the feeling” Keith didn’t know if Pidge was referring to Lotor or when Shiro attacked everybody because he wasn’t actually Shiro. 

Keith woke up, he couldn’t believe Shiro had actually drug him and he hated to admit he felt better, he felt a pang in his left arm, and discovered he had an IV. He had a tray with food next to his bed with a note that said ‘You can eat this or stay with the IV for some more hours’ He disconnected the IV and started to eat. He had been trying to figure out what his double was thinking, if Pidge was right, they were very similar, but he couldn’t think on something that would make him betray his friends. He wasn’t like that or he liked to think so, but after what he saw, he wasn’t sure anymore.   
He knew he was torturing himself, every time he thought what Lance would have thought, when he saw his double attacked him, he wondered if Lance had seen that as a possibility, if it crossed his mind that the person attacking him could be Keith, if he saw him and Akira as different persons or just as different sides of the same coin. Maybe Lance would never trust him again, seeing that in one reality he was a traitor. He was angry at his double, how could he have done that, Keith had been so envious of him, because he could be with the person he loved, and that idiot go and do that? It was like he hadn’t wanted to be happy. Maybe it was his curse in every reality, the inability to be completely happy.

He got up, and had to hold the wall when his head started spinning, after a few moments everything settle. Maybe skipping meals and refused to sleep hadn’t been the brightest idea. Shiro was right, he wasn’t helping by making himself sick. He looked at his reflection in the mirror and he almost fainted again. Some strands of his hair had turned white, three days of stress and he was already getting old? Was he actually related to Shiro after all? That was stupid, Shiro’s hair had turned white because of magic, not because he was getting old. He tired to hide the strands, but he didn’t put too much effort in, he had other things to worry about.  
“Keith you are up!” Hunk was happy to see him.  
“Yes, thanks to certain someone I had to sleep” He send a mean look to Shiro.  
“I’m sorry Keith, but you weren’t listening to reason. How are you feeling?” He didn’t look sorry at all.  
“Fine unfortunately” He made a face when he saw Shiro’s pride look.   
“That’s great. And for once I have good news!” Pidge said. “I think I know why Akira did what he did”  
Well in a way, that were good news.  
“I still had not all the data, because someone tried to erased the video, but I’m working on it”

Keith could work with anything right now; any piece of information was welcomed. He followed Pidge to the computers room, and saw that their doubles were there, Katie and Hunk looked at him apologetic, Leandro… he looked terrible, he had dark circle under his eyes, his hair was a mess, his eyes were puffy and red and he was sure he had just picked random clothes so he could be medium decent for this. The Guns of Gamora had left after the whole fiasco, saying they needed to do who knows what.   
“I think you will be able to relate a lot with this Keith” Everyone was looking at Pidge expectantly, she had wanted to show what she found, to all of them at the same time.

The video started, but all that was in the screen was static, no image, a very annoying sound, but he trusted Pidge. Some minutes passed, and the image started to change, for a few seconds he could see fragments of what it looked like a random hallway, it took a moment until the image stabilized, Hira was there, with some altean soldiers behind her. Akira and Leandro were there too, they were both on the floor Akira was hugging Leandro with all his force, Leandro wasn’t responding, he was probably unconscious. His double looked ready to fight with all his being, just to protect his fallen boyfriend. There was a conversation going, but the audio was still purely static.

“ _What!?_ ” Akira’s scream startled everyone, the audio was loud and clear.  
“ _You hear me young boy, we never hurt an altean_ ” Hira said, she turned around and leave.

“He is half altean” Keith said.  
“His half stupid” Leandro said and leave.  
“You think that because he is half altean he decided to join their side?” Ty asked.  
“That doesn’t sound right, but when Keith was suspecting he was half galra he kind of leave” Shiro wasn’t wrong, when he started thinking he probably was galra or had some connection with the galra he thought he was putting everybody at risk.   
“But why? Is not like we care about what he is, we wouldn’t think any different of him, he is still who he is! Yes, maybe things would have been awkward for a few days, but that’s all!” Katie was furious, she was waving her hands in exasperation motions.  
“Pidge, can you recover the rest of the video?” She looked at him with a ‘duh’ look “Okay, tell me when it ready”  
“Where are you going?” Shiro said, he could almost hear the worry in his voice, he was probably thinking he was going to go and obsessed with finding Lance again, which he had a huge chance of doing but first he had to do something else.  
“I’m going to stand for my idiot double”

Of the lot of things Leandro and Lance had in common was that they both liked high places where they could see the stars. It wasn’t very difficult to find Leandro with that fact. He was in the last floor of the facility, looking through the window, he had his legs retracted and was hugging them.   
“We used to come here very often, he likes to watch the sunset, and I like to look at the stars, so we spend a lot of time here, from the moment the sun started to hide, until the moment it started to rise again.” Keith said nothing and sit next to Leandro. He looked at the stars for a while, until the other decided to talk again “Why didn’t he told me? I wouldn’t have mind it”  
“I know…” He gulped, he was about to say something he hadn’t said to anyone, but he figured it that it was the best he could do “When I discovered that I was half galra, half of the bad guy we fight every day I was mortified, really afraid of the others reactions. I couldn’t even decide if I wanted them to know or not. When they knew I felt like everything was going to chance, Allura hated me, Hunk was scared of me, Pidge suspicious and Shiro pity me, I wanted to leave immediately, I couldn’t stand it, I have started to consider all of them my friends, and suddenly I knew that wasn’t possible anymore… So, when Lance insulted my mullet for who knows what time I stared at him like… like if he was the one being part alien and not me… He sent me this ‘The fuck is wrong with you’ look and left…  
“It sounds like Lance was a jerk” Keith laughed, and Leandro watched him probably thinking if he had gone insane.  
“Yeah, he was… he had invented this rivalry against me, but he kept doing things like saying we were a good team, and it drive me nuts! And I know this is probably not helping at all. But what I wanted to say, is when Lance insulted me, he was treating me the same, like if the fact that I was half galra had slipped through his mind. It took me a lot of time to ask him what he had thought in that moment, and his answered was something like ‘You were always weird Keith, that didn’t change a thing’” Leandro snorted at his bad interpretation of Lance.  
“So… he insulted you and you were happy about it?” He nodded “Lance is right, you are weird…” he was about to protest when Leandro kept talking “But I think I get your point… I can imagine Akira freaking out after finding he was part of the ‘bad guys’, but I thought he trusted me… the he knew that I always love him no matter what”   
“I can’t exactly talk for him, but I believe he might have some trouble believing that. And I promise it has nothing to do with you.” His expression was similar to Lance when they first arrived. Hurt because of love. 

“I know…” He looked tired when he gazed at the stars “When we first met, he saved my life and Ty’s, we were having some troubles against the sentries, and suddenly this person appeared and save us, we were so grateful… But our savior got hurt, and we ended up bring him here, because we couldn’t just leave him there, you know? It also helped he was undeniable handsome.” He was smiling sadly, like if the memories hurt him “After he woke up, I wanted to talk to him, but he was scared, and insisted he wanted to leave, I tried to convince him to stay but he was stubborn, he still is. When he left, I was sad, because I thought I was never going to see him again… But I did, I got hurt fighting and he saved me again, just this time he took care of me in some abandon building, and I still could see he didn’t trust me…”  
“But he couldn’t leave you there” Little tears started to accumulate in the corner of Leandro’s eyes.  
“Exactly, after I recovered, I insisted him that he accompanied me here, but he left again, and I was hurt, because in the few days I had been with him I had discovered so much about him I was falling for him hard and he just kept leaving. But after a few weeks he just showed up, he seemed uncertain and was little jumpy, but I felt like the happiest person in the world. Katie and Ty annoy me every day, saying that I was to obvious. But he was blind or something.”  
“I think he thought he was seeing things, like if it was impossible someone like you would notice him or see him in that way”  
“Talking by experience?” It was Keith’s turn to smile sadly, in his case he was certain he had imagined all, Lance had always loved Allura. “Anyway, after six months of suffering I decided that I had to tell him, so I told him to meet me here, because… I don’t even remember what I said, but he came and I told him that I liked him. And you know what he did? He asked me if I was joking! I almost strangle him in that moment. I’ll never joke with something like that! I told him I was being honest, and he blushed and leave… Do you leave every time you freak out?”  
“Being stuck in space doesn’t let you do that… but I tried sometimes, until I have to accept that I had to deal with things” And Shiro saying that also helped.  
“Here we have a lot of places to run…” He was starting to be more sad than melancholic, and Keith was about to say something, when he continued “So after two days, when I felt like the saddest person in the universe, Akira came back, and Ty was about to hit him for breaking my heart, when he asked me if I could accompany him somewhere…” He stopped, he got up, like if he had had a revelation.  
“Leandro…?”  
“He took me to this place he had been living, he told me it was a place he went when he had to think, it was like his secret place… That where he is! Akira is there with Lance! He probably forgot he took me there or he might be thinking I’m so mad with him that the last thing I want is to think about him. Keith, we had to go there before he comes to his senses and move!” 

Keith got up, ready to go to where that place was, it didn’t even cross his mind that he couldn’t just go there unprepared. Thankfully he slammed against Shiro before he could even go too far.  
“What’s going on?” Leandro asked when Ty hugged him.  
“We know why Akira did what he did” Shiro said, and his face screamed bad news. They went down to the computers room.   
“I managed to recover all the video” Pidge told him the moment he entered. Katie was having kind of a panic attack, because she had shortness of breath, and was looking at nothing with a scared face.  
Without saying anything else she started the video. This time it was clear from the beginning. Leandro appeared running first, he was shooting at something.

“ _Akira, hurry up! We need to get out of here!_ ” Keith looked momentary at Leandro, he seemed to be recognizing what was happening.   
“ _Shit_ ” Akira appeared on the screen, a soldier was attacking him repeatedly, Leandro shot said soldier and it fall. Akira nodded at him and both of them started to run, then two of that spheres appeared, Leandro notice one of them, and shot the one closer to Akira, but he failed to notice the one behind him. He suddenly stopped moving, he let his arms fall, and stood straight.

“That’s not possible” He said, looking at the screen, Ty that had his arm around him all the time, tighten his embrace.

“ _No, No! Leandro_ ” Akira was suddenly by his side, he kept moving his arms like if he didn’t know if he could touch him or not. His body was shaking, and tears started to fall from his eyes “ _No, please no…_ ”  
“ _What a touching scene_ ” Hira was there, like in the other video, that was technically the same video.  
“ _You will not touch him_ ” Akira put himself between Hira and Leandro.  
“ _Don’t make me laugh… humans are really ridiculous… Every time we capture one of their own, they believe they can do something to save them, you don’t realize that we are saving you, for yourselves_ ” Hira seemed almost disgusted “ _It will not matter anymore, I will suck all that will that keeps you going. Or you could just go, is funny to hunt these rebels. C’mon I giving you the choice to hold to that pathetic will for a few more time_ ”

Akira was still not moving, like he was thinking it was best to die there that go. “ _I’m not going anywhere_ ” He charged at Hira, his sword in hand, but Hira was faster and stronger and beat him easily, but Akira didn’t seem to mind, he stood up again and again, until Hira snapped her fingers and suddenly Leandro was in front of him, prevent it him to reach Hira. Akira stopped, he couldn’t hurt him.  
“ _I like your loyalty boy, but he doesn’t love you anymore, he is no longer capable of such thing… What is his name? Landre or something? Whatever, come here_ ” Leandro started to move, and Akira tried to hold him but he couldn’t, it was like trying to stop a moving wall. He hugged Leandro, begging him to stop. “ _You are a very stubborn boy, stop, I changed my mind I will take you both_ ”  
“ _I’m so sorry Leandro… I love you_ ” Leandro was no longer moving. Akira kissed him quickly and then he closed his eyes, prepared to what was coming next.   
“ _It’s not possible…_ ” Hira was astonished “ _One of the leaders of this stupid rebellion… Maybe this is not bad at all… Leandro if I die, kill yourself_ ” Hira said, and the hoktril retired from Leandro’s neck, he became a dead weight, but Akira hold him, preventing him to hit the ground. They were both on the floor. Akira was still shaking, he wiped his tears fast, and grab his sword.  
“ _What are you playing?_ ” He asked.  
“ _Akira, my boy you know what you have to do, if you fail to protect me, your beloved will die, you will have to decide, what is more important if him or freeing your planet_ ” Hira the sick bitch seemed to be enjoying what she was doing.   
“ _Why are you doing this!?_ ” Akira screamed.  
“ _My dear boy, I never hurt an altean_ ”   
“ _What!?_ ”  
“ _You hear me young boy, we never hurt an altean_ ”  
“He did it for me” Leandro statement was the only sound that broke the silence that followed the revelation.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was soooo uncertain with this chapter, I tried to leave some hints that this was something that happened, but I’m not sure if I accomplished that. I hope you had enjoyed it anyway.  
> Thank you for reading :3 (And comment and leaving kudos)


	10. Delirium

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance has been shot, and has strange dreams while he is healing. He reaches a huge revelation.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I kind of los all my inspiration, I really don’t know what I’m doing anymore. What I know is that classes start in less than a week and if I want to have a chance to finish this, I have to do it know. I want to end this with Keith POV, so this leave me with one more chapter or three more at max. I hope you enjoy this one (I’m not proud of it)  
> Sorry for any mistakes.

Delirium

Lance was pretty sure that not even when he had taken that blast for Allura he had felt like this, his side felt like it was on fire, he felt cold and hot at the same time his entire being was covered in sweat and he had breathing difficulties… He had never truly appreciated the long-gone healing pods until that moment. He knew eventually he had to open his eyes and figure out where he was and discovered what had happen to him after Akira shot him and knocked him out… He couldn’t believe it, but thinking about it made his head hurt more than it was hurting already. He tired to move, but felt sharp pain that almost made his vision go white, so he decided to not move, he felt his throat dry… maybe he could fix that first. He slowly opened his eyes, and made an uncomfortable sound, when the light felt like it was drilling his eyes. He had to make several attempts before being able to focus anything. He was in a shack made of pieces of metal, he groaned, does every version of Keith had one of these? 

“You are not dead” The sound of a voice, it made everything hurt, and he closed his eyes again, he felt like he was dying.  
“You… you can’t be that stupid…” Talking was a little difficult, but not impossible “You can see that I’m agonizing… obviously I’m not dead…”  
“I’m sorry” Even in his condition, he could still distinguish the voice, it was similar to Keith’s but it wasn’t Keith’s.  
“You are not sorry at all… you prick” It wasn’t the best insult of all, but he could blame it to his condition.  
“I never thought it would hurt you that way” Ignoring all the pain, Lance moved, so he was half sitting in the improvised bed, he felt something like blood starting to run in his side. He forced his eyes to remain open.  
“Forget what I said, you are stupid” It was difficult to see Akira, he looked regretful but at the same time, was like looking at his teammate, in his feverish state he couldn’t see much different. The thought of his leader hurting him was not pleasant at all.  
“Lance believe be, I never wanted to hurt you” He wondered if when Keith apologized looked like that, like he was scared of himself. It was similar… when Keith had found out he was half galra he sometime had catching him looking at himself with the same expression, like he didn’t recognize himself or if he expected to transform in some sort of monster in any moment.  
“Obviously, because you shoot people you don’t want to hurt them” He was going to faint again, he could feel it, his head was heavy and his vision cloudy. He stopped resisting and fall unconscious. 

He dreamed, he was again in Cuba with his family, many years ago, before even consider or even knowing what the Garrison was, he was looking at the stars, feeling the warm water wet his feet. Suddenly he was in the Garrison, seeing the same stars from the roof, Hunk was with him, he was saying something about going back, but Lance didn’t listen, his sight always in the stars, he saw Pidge appeared at his left, in that moment he still thought she was a he. They made a great team, he was grateful he had been kicked out of the fighters’ class, because in that way he could meet them, fighter pilots were almost always alone, his planes being made for one person. They only had missions with other people when they practice rescue missions. He knew he was delirious, when he saw Keith, he was younger and seemed annoyed but with tears in his eyes, he didn’t remember seeing Keith annoyed all the time, but he didn’t remember seeing him cry. Shiro was the too, before his hair was white, he was talking to Keith more like scolding him… Maybe that was something that happened and he had decided to forget it. In his dreams he closed his eyes, and when he opened them again, he was in the Castle of Lions, Allura was there, smiling at him, holding his hand, that never happened, but he decided to ignored that fact and enjoy the view… he felt his face light up, and he knew that his altean marks were shinning, he looked at Allura and her mark were shinning too.  
“ _You are hurt_ ” Allura’s voice was soft and caring… he didn’t remember ever hearing her like that. Just caring abut her loved one, without the weight of the universe in her shoulders.  
“ _Apparently… Keith’s double shot me_ ” He felt Allura’s hand press against his side.  
“ _Here?_ ” She asked… Lance knew in that moment that whatever it was happening, that was not Allura, not even the memory he had of her.  
“ _Am I dying?_ ” Maybe it was death, manifesting it in front of himself. Using the form of someone he had love.  
“ _No, you are not I won’t let you_ ” His mouth fell open, Allura had transformed in Keith, he had his galran sword, and was looking at him determinate.  
“ _It’s not something you can control, mullet_ ” Keith was still in front of him, but Allura appeared by his side. Hi hand was glowing, like that time she healed him after he got hurt… She looked sad, he wanted to erased her sadness, he wanted to see her smile again.  
“ _Lance! Stop looking that way_ ” His head was hurting, and his side started to burn. “ _Don’t leave us_ ”  
“ _What…?_ ” 

He felt a tremor, and he was again in the shack. He felt a lot better, his side was no longer trying to kill him, and he felt more hot than cold, which he thought it had to be a good sign. Akira was at his side, he seemed really focus, he was murmuring something.  
“Serve of something stupid heritage” The top of his scar was… was glowing, like an altean mark.  
“Are you half-altean?” He was to tired to deal with that, Akira jumped, like he hadn’t expected it to work “and you have magic…”  
“Do not all?”  
“What!?”  
“Alteans, do not all have magic?”  
“No, well I don’t know, I think not all? How is that relevant? And how the hell are you half-altean?” His companion looked about to answer but he really didn’t feel like hearing “No, forget it I don’t want to know… Where are we?”  
“In my house” Lance started to move, he felt better, his side still ache a little, but he figured he could stand. He rose up slowly, it hurt a little but nothing he couldn’t handle, he walked, Akira was only looking at him, which was really weird. He approached the door, but the other didn’t seem to mind, was he about to just let him go? Lance looked at him suspiciously and put a hand in the door knob. Keith’s double didn’t move, he opened the door, and screamed, the shack was in the top of a very, very high building, the door connected directly with the abysm. He heard a laugh.  
“You son of a…! You could have warned me I almost die! This time for real” He was still trying to regulate his hear beat.  
“I’m sorry I couldn’t resist” Keith didn’t laugh like that very often, he smiled yes, smirked from time to time, yes. But openly laughed like that… he couldn’t help to smiled, Akira was really like Keith in all the aspects, so seeing him laugh it was like seeing his leader laugh, and that sight warm him.  
“You are unbelievable” He closed the door, when he started to fill dizzy again “I think I’m going to faint…” He managed to say, before the world went black.

This time, his dreams carrying him directly to the Castle of Lions, he figure it out that until he was completely healed or at least his most likely infection faded he was going to be having this strange dreams, this time he was alone, in front of him was the immense space, the Balmera passed in front of the Castle, it looked smaller than he remembered, but he was not going to question his strange dreams, he wondered if Hunk was there…  
“ _I’m probably panicking because we don’t know where you are_ ” Dream Hunk said, he was by his side looking at the Balmera.  
“ _Yeah you’re right. Do you know where we are? I know is a dream but it feels different_ ” He had this feeling this wasn’t an ordinarily feverish dream.  
“ _I don’t have the answered, but by all the time you hear me I can figure it has something to do with the quintessence, you seem to be connecting with it somehow_ ” Dream Pidge answered, she never seemed to be able to sit properly in his dreams.  
“ _So… you are my conscience or something?_ ” He wanted to wake up, he needed to talk with Akira, finding what he had done what he did, and after that he needed to convince him to take him back to the facility.  
“ _Not exactly, we are part of it, but we are also part of your friends’ quintessence, they are worried about you_ ” Dream Shiro or Shiro’s quintessence said. He didn’t know he could have headaches in dreams.  
Just when he finished his thought, he was alone again. He moved, travelling through the castle, there were hallways he was sure were not that long, and some parts he never entered were simply not there. He somehow managed to find his room. He felt trapped in his own mind.  
“ _Lance_ ” Allura was there again. But as the other time it wasn’t really her, he thought that it might had to do with what Shiro have said, about them being his friends’ quintessence, but Allura was dead, so this Allura in front of him, had nothing of the Allura he knew and loved.  
“ _Allura… I love you but every time you appear, I feel like I’m dying_ ” He was getting tired in his own dream.  
“ _The time is running Lance, you have to leave soon, all of you_ ”

__He knew he was out, when he felt rough sheet around him. He opened his eyes but his vision felt a little different. He sat slowly, Akira wasn’t there. He felt a cold breeze in his neck, he touched his hair, that was significantly shorter, he got up and looked at himself in some mirror that was there, his left eye was yellow, and he was sure it wasn’t because of the contact. He needed to do something, but when his vision blurred, he wanted to scream, he could black out now…__

____

" _I need to do something! Could you please stop doing this!?_ ” He screamed at not-Allura.  
“ _You are weak… you need to rest_ ” He wondered if rolling his eyes would be rude. He did it anyway.  
“ _Damn Lance, stop being so fucking stubborn you need to rest_!” Great, now dream Keith was screaming at him. He was about to replicate when he saw Keith face “ _Can you not see I worry about you?_ ”  
“ _Sorry I never wanted to worry you_ ” It felt weird to apologize to someone in his dreams, but he would do anything to stop Keith looking him like that. He was immediately rewarded, Keith smiled at him, like that time he complimented him when he was nervous because of his date, or that other time when he was desperate because of Allura and Keith had talked to him, saying everything was going to be fine.  
“ _Why you do this to me… to yourself… to us?_ ” Dream Keith asked.  
“ _I don’t understand what are you talking about I didn’t ask to get hurt_ ” Dream Keith was really weird.  
“ _Why do you forbid yourself from seeing how I feel?_ ” Things were starting to get awkward, he felt uncomfortable, he got dazzled when the scenario changed, he was in top of Black, looking at the sunset, just this time he was standing, and Keith was in his left looking at him. “ _Why Lance?_ ”  
He took one step back, he didn’t like what was happening, Keith looked vulnerable, and the sight was wrong in so many ways, Keith wasn’t supposed to look like that, he was strong and brave and so much mature that any of them, he was also caring and sensitive even if he didn’t demonstrate much, because he actually didn’t need to, Lance knew Keith appreciate him, every time he felt down, Keith had been there for him, with the right words or actions… They had passed through a lot together, Lance had tried to be there for him, and he remembered how happy he felt when Keith referred him as ‘the one he always had his back’, because that meant Keith trusted him… Everything else he said that time Lance thought it was because Keith was giving him courage, but he had been wrong… He understood, that yes Keith cared for him, but not as he thought, he believed Keith took extra cared for him because he thought he was the most likely to get hurt, that he tried to reassured him because he didn’t know how to deal with mope people or that he couldn’t stand it… That he wanted him to be happy because they were friends…  
He didn’t have the right to call anyone stupid… He always thought anything, because he was scared to see what it was in front of him.

>   
>  Keith loves him.  
> 
> 
>   
> 

“Lance! Are you aware? Are you with me this time?” Lance felt like if he had woken from a long dream “The wound got infected and I didn’t know what to do, you had a very bad fever I thought I had lost you sometimes”  
“A… Akira?” His head hurt, and he could feel bandages around his torso.  
“Yes Lance, it’s me… you scared me, it’s been three days and just now your fever went down.”  
“I… I been unconscious for three days?” Oh man, that explained why he felt like shit.  
“More like delirious, but yes, you shouldn’t move you are not totally recovered” He could hear the fear in Akira´s voice.  
“Where are the others?” Silent was his answered “Akira?”  
“I didn’t know what to do… After I did what I did… I know they are searching for you, they had to be… I wanted to send them a message but you were in such a precarious condition I couldn’t just left you here. I’m so sorry Lance, all this happened because I’m a mess”  
“Don’t worry… what you did was beyond stupid but I understand” He wanted to fall back asleep, but first he needed Akira to know “We do stupid things for the people we love” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In case it hasn’t been really clear (because I felt is not) Everything in this chapter is Lance delirium, from the start he is dreaming, having this weird fevrish dream. That's why every time he 'wakes up' everything is more weird.  
> He regains awareness in the end, when he wakes up and Akira is asking him if he is with him this time. (Because he might had wake up a few times in those three days, but he wasn’t really aware of his surroundings, scaring Akira)  
> This will end soon. I can’t even hope you like this chapter if I’m not convinced myself.  
> Thank you for reading anyway.


	11. What if?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After the revelation the paladins find another way to find Lance. But when Keith gets to him, he is acting a little bit strange and he doesn’t know what to think. They realize they don’t have too much time left.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I almost made this the final chapter, but I wanted to work with Lance feeling a little more. So, the next chapter is the penultimate, and I’m still finishing this with Keith.  
> I realized that I really suck at romance and I should have thought that before writing this, I’m sorry.  
> (Also sorry for any mistakes)

Keith knew that one day he was going to die, he had a lot of options, more of them including epic battles, heroic sacrifices and stuff like that, a very few including dumb dead or die peacefully at and old age. But he was pretty sure he never thought anxiety could kill him, but he was in his limit… he felt his leg trembled while the others only talked and talked. He didn’t understand what they were still doing there.  
“Relax Keith, we will figure it this out” Shiro told him, but he still didn’t move, didn’t interfere with the discussion the other were having, was he being a terrible leader? just because the only thing he wanted was to be with Lance, well not be with him, well yes, but what he was referring was he wanted to rescue Lance or at least know how he was.   
“It’s been an hour and they still… there! Doing nothing!” Leandro, Katie and Ty had started a massive discussion about what to do next, Leandro was saying they needed to end Hira, Ty and Katie were against that. And Keith… well it’s not like Keith didn’t consider that important, but he had other priorities.   
“They just found out something terrible, you need to give them time” He groaned, he knew that, he really did, but couldn’t they have their time after they found Lance and Akira? “Did you dye your hair?”  
“What?” The question disconcerted him, he looked at Shiro, and his hair was changing colours too, he was again black in the sides. “Did you dye yours?”  
“No…” His brother started to move, like he was trying to see his own hair, but it seemed like an impossible task. He looked comical, moving his body like that, he did some turns in the process and Keith smiled, when Shiro caught the side of that he smiled too.   
“Should we worry about it?” He looked at his own white strands.  
“Maybe?” 

Keith congratulated himself, talking to Shiro about nonsense had taken his mind of Lance for the amazing quantity of 2 minutes. He couldn’t just focus on other things, he had the red bayard attached to his side, hoping to see it disappear, because that would mean Lance was okay, or at least in the proper state to materialize his bayard, and if he did that, they could track him down. But the thing hadn’t move in three days, and his mind kept repeating and repeating what he saw, how bad Lance’s injury had looked.  
He wanted to go and ask Leandro where Akira’s hideout was, but he didn’t feel it was opportune. He was amazed by the way he had taken the news of what had happened to him, he wasn’t sure had how he reacted if he suddenly knew that for some instants, he had lost his will and at mercy of someone else… He looked at Shiro, and he had an apprehensive look.  
“Shit, I’m sorry” He was terrible, how could he be so insensitive?  
“It’s okay Keith, you did nothing wrong”  
“How could you say that? I’m here moping like child, that I never consider how all this non-cog stuff would make you feel.” How had he not thought about that before? He had never truly talked with Shiro about what had happened with the clone, if he remembered everything, or just when Black was active, if he knew what his clone had done or he just felt it… being manipulated by Haggar.  
“Keith, as I said it’s okay, the one you love is missing…” He blushed, he didn’t know he feel about Shiro calling Lance the one he loves, it wasn’t a lie, but still made him feel weird. “I will try and see if they are getting to something, okay?”  
“Thank you” He still didn’t know what he had done to deserve Shiro’s kindness.

He took the red bayard, his only connection with Lance, he remembered the story of how Lance had given his old bayard to Allura, it was a beautiful story charged with meaning, trust and affection. Completely different to the way him or Lance had gotten their new bayards… he wished he could have known Red was going to take Lance after he had to take Black, he would have wanted to give him his bayard, and probably tell him something, but no… life was unfair like that.   
He found himself in front of Red, her barrier was up, he looked at Black, but the lion seemed to be rejecting him because of his inside conflict, it was as if he consider his dilemma a child thing, and he wasn’t very affine of children, he remembered he only accepted him in the first place because Shiro’s influence, he had to spend two years almost alone in space so Black almost like him. Red was another story, she had a very difficult temper but she was caring but also a little bit dramatic.   
“Do you know where Lance is?” He felt like he was reliving one of the worst moments of his life, the second time he lost Shiro, he had begged Black to find him, but nothing worked. He felt and indignation wave, it was like if Red was annoyed that he only came here to ask her something, he could almost picture Lance saying ‘No hello Red? How are you? How’s life? How are you feeling? Nothing? You are an ungrateful and rude person Kogane’. He smiled, and red send and annoyed wave combined with some sick feeling, like if she was discussed of Keith sappy thoughts.   
“Please I need to know, he is hurt… I know you care for him as much as I do” He had the sensation he could not do this alone… he knew that it was Red saying him that. But he wasn’t sure how he was supposed to tell the others, he wasn’t even sure what he had to tell them. He tried to reach Red again, but she had closed.

He watched the red bayard, he wanted the thing to disappear, it was the only way he could find him… He at least knew Lance was okay, Red didn’t seem very preoccupied, that eased his worries for now… He started to walk back to the facility when Pidge and Hunk appeared.  
“Keith, is everything alright?” Pidge asked, she had some tool in her hands, like if she had run.  
“Yeah, why? Something happened?” He was starting to get worry every time Pidge brought news, because they always were bad and worst.   
“Well, Katie and Ty stopped trying to change Leandro’s mind, and he left to find you? And then we felt our lions calling us” Hunk explained.  
“We thought something had happened. Isn’t Leandro here?” She asked, while she started to resumed whatever she was doing with some strange artefact.   
“No, he isn’t… I been here for a long time…” It was weird, if Leandro had wanted to find him, he certainly had already done it.  
“He is going to do something stupid isn’t he?” Hunk asked “I know we are not supposed to be comparing us with our doubles, but those two are too similar”  
“Don’t you think he…?” Pidge and Hunk stared at each other, like if they were having a secret conversation Keith couldn’t be part of.  
“He had already done that twice… well more times, but two times were kind of extreme, like live or dead extreme” Hunk was panicking, and even if that was his semi-normal condition, this time Keith worried.   
“What are you guys saying?” Keith tried to remain calm.  
“You know Lance sometimes feels like he is replaceable, or that his life is less than the others, so he tent to sacrifice himself for others, like if someone has to be left behind it should be him…” Hunk was sad, he could see it in his face, the impotence of knowing Lance felt that way and he couldn’t do anything to prevent it, just do whatever he could to show him he was important, and that everybody cared about him, and he had skills… that he wasn’t replaceable, the he was an amazing human being. He knew that feeling, because he ahd felt it too.  
“So, before both of you get too sad in your thoughts, if Leandro feels he is stopping the rebellion, or being a burden to Akira, he might try and do something stupid” Keith felt cold…  
“But the only way his plan works is if Akira knows” Shiro was there, looking at him, he knew what he had to do, what everybody had to do. He felt the red bayard pulse in his hand, before transformed itself in a sword, Shiro made a tired but kind of knowing sound, the Black bayard in his floating arm. Hunk and Pidge bayrad remained the same, but with a soft glow. “One last time?” Shiro asked, and the barriers of four lions faded.

Keith felt Red, she was laughing he could tell, she was also happy he was there again, he flew to the sky. He closed his eyes and let Red guide him, to her rightful pilot, like the time Black had drove him to Shiro, just that this time he was different, he wasn’t anymore the anguish teenager he once was, he wasn’t in a desperate search for someone, this time he was certain, he was going to get to the one he loves.   
Keith almost laughed at the irony when in the distance he saw a shitty shack, made of metal. Red even humour him, doing a little flip so he could sense she was relaxed and laughing at the same thing. He had left the other behind, and none of them had cared, they all apparently knew about Keith’s feelings, all of them except Lance apparently.  
As he was approaching, he saw a figure leaning on the shack, it took him a few moments to recognize it was Lance. He was smiling at him, not technically at him, he couldn’t even know he was inside of Red, but Keith was amazed, not only because Lance had a pretty smile, it was the fact that he seemed so relaxed and happy that made him happy, the past few days had been hard for him, always looking sad or melancholic. 

“Lance!” Was Keith’s first word once he stepped out of Red, he was worried and at the same time relieved, he looked fine.  
“My knight in shinny armour, have you come to rescue me?” He knew something was wrong when Lance called him his knight in shinny armour, but he couldn’t prevent his blush, Lance was looking at him like it was the first time he saw him, like actually saw him and that made him nervous.  
“I’m… I’m not wearing my armour” Was his brilliant response, Lance laughed, but didn’t move.   
“I notice it” He didn’t know what to do next, his friend seemed a little strange.  
“Are you… are you okay?” Keith knew he was playing with his hair, but it was something he did when he was nervous, and right now he was at the edge of mental collapse.   
“I think… I’m high? I have this nasty wound in my side, but I don’t feel it and I’m not sure that’s good” That restarted Keith’s brain, he couldn’t be thinking in other things, he had to focus. He approached so he could check the wound, but then he thought it would be rude to lift the others shirt just like that.  
“Should I?” Lance rolled his eyes and lifted his shirt, he tried as hard as he could on not focus on Lance excellent body and checked the wound. It was horrible, like a burn it was probably going to leave a scar, he wondered if Lance would mind it, he always was taking care of his aspect, and maybe he would not feel really good about the scar or maybe he thought it could be a cool battle scar “Shit, it looks really bad”   
“Are you still checking the wound or something else caught your attention?” He retreated, if what he had said was true, he had to be really high for being saying that kind of things, Lance still bother him from time to time, but as a joke, innocent jokes, not this.  
“No, I mean… the wound, is not that bad, it seems that someone had been taken care of it” When Lance took his hand, Keith knew… His crush knew he had feelings for him, he panicked, he didn’t know what to do or what was Lance doing, was he making fun of him? That didn’t sound like him, he would never play with something as feeling… right?  
“You should probably not go there” His heart was beating so fast, and Lance had his hand in his, and was kind of squishing it or swinging it, he wasn’t sure.  
“And why I shouldn’t?” He tried to remain calm, but all his being was focus on how Lance hand felt in his, how they seemed to fit perfectly, how his hand was war compared to his own. Was he imagine things or Lance seemed content of being there, just with him?  
“I’m pretty sure our doubles are making out.” That was a very good reason to not enter there. He looked at his linked hands, and then at Lance, hoping he understood the message, but the only thing he got was losing the hand that was holding his. 

“Lance!” He hard Hunk and Pidge screamed, in less than a second, they were all over Lance.  
“Careful he is hurt!” but Pidge had already tackled Lance, that fall with her with a painful groan.   
“I think you just murder me Pidgeon” Lance said, but the girl didn’t care, she was hugging him, Hunk reach his side moments after, and rise both of them with a hug.  
“We were so worried about you”   
Keith looked the scene in front of him, Lance was surrounded by the people that love him, and he was happy… Keith dark thoughts came back, what just happened was product of some sort of strong medicine, that Lance was just messing around, that he saw him as a friend… Again, he tried to convince himself he was okay with that. He smiled anyway, and when Shiro came, he felt his reassuring hand in his shoulder, giving him support.

Something caught his attention, was Pidge hair shorter? And why did Lance still have the yellow contact on? He remembered his own white hair or how Shiro’s had turn black…  
“Pidge?” She turned around with a smile on her face, that disappeared when she saw his worried look.   
“Yes?” She asked. Hunk was still holding Lance when both of them looked at him.  
“How much time do we have before this reality can’t sustain us?” He didn’t know a lot of things about realities, but he got this feeling something was wrong.  
“We should still have a couple of weeks, why are you asking?” She answered.  
“Are you sure?” He wasn’t sure of how to explain himself, so he just started to do random signs, trying to make an emphasis in his own hair. He saw the realization in her eyes when she tried to reach her longest strands only to find out they were gone.   
“We are disappearing, at a quicker rate than I predicted… But I don’t understand why the process accelerate!?”   
“Maybe Lance dead experience made this reality decided which of us should stay” Hunk guessed, and it didn’t sound crazy at all, since his hair started to turn white after Lance disappeared.  
“What do we do now?” Shiro asked him, and it was the strangest thing in the world, Shiro was again flying Black he was supposed to be the leader in this case, but all the looks were pointed at him.  
“We form Voltron” He looked at Lance when he said that, and the other nod. He knew Lance could do it, he trusted him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What is going on in Lance’s mind? Find out int the next chapter.  
> The end is near and I hope I can still put the romance in here, even if is not going to be perfect, maybe not even sappy and fluffy as I wanted to.  
> Thanks for reading, hope you stay here until the end.


	12. For you, everything.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance thinks about his feelings, the team finally make it home, but not without some complications.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wrote this in three different moments (I normally do all the chapter in a row), so I’m sorry if it’s a bit messy. I hope you like it I tried hard with Lance feelings, but I not exactly succeeded.

For you, everything.

Lance was feeling a little bit better after his fever finally disappeared, no more hallucinations or constant black outs, he still felt dizzy sometimes, but nothing like before. Akira ha secluded in some other part of the shack after he made certain Lance could be by his own… that left him with a lot of time to thing, about his realization during his dreams, he was still reluctant to believe it, and he wasn’t sure why. When he started to think an analyse every interaction he had with Keith, it was kind of obvious that the other had certain affection towards him, first it was the looks or occasional glances the way Keith looked at him, like he was the most important being in the world, in moments where that shouldn’t be. The way he got embarrassed or flustered when Lance made some comment with some sexual innuendo, or that time when he accidentally had told him a pick-up line, and the other almost chocked with his drink. That also would explain why he never looked completely happy when he was dating Allura, why he always had this look between happy and yearn. 

But what it bothered him the most, was not knowing how he felt. He had been with Allura… and a lot of things happened, and now he was alone again. He hadn’t never considerate Keith as a romantic partner, did he? He was certain his leader was extremely good looking, and he had a heart bigger than the world, he had troubles as any other but he always managed to be there in the moment he was needed, be there for the ones he cared about, he had helped Shiro, expressed his unconformity about Pidge wanting to leave, he had understand Allura’s fear of being the one Zarkon was tracking, he had helped Hunk in Earth when his parent where in trouble, and he had been there for Lance every time he felt he was not worth it or enough, even if Keith wasn’t the most open of all of them, he had made and effort to make Lance realize how he looked him, give him encouragement, and eased his worries. 

He also had the proof he could be with him and be happy, the flashes of the other realities had told him that, but in this reality, what were his feeling towards Keith? He saw him only as friend? Or maybe something more? He never stop to think about it, before he actually meet him he hadn’t like him, he was so jealous of him in the Garrison, Keith could do everything without putting effort in it, or so he had thought, when they got stuck together in all that ‘saving the universe’ he only focused in competing with him, trying to be better than him in his so called rivalry, it took hi a while to stop looking at him as someone to beat and pass to see him as someone that was there, that had emotions of his own, struggles like everyone else, basically that he wasn’t as perfect as he thought. Since that moment he tried to become friends with him, something he found extremely easy and they were making progress before he left. 

The blade of Marmora had somehow stopped everything, when Keith came back, he was different, physically and mentally, he was more mature in some aspects, and Lance felt he had left everyone behind. They fought together in a new synchrony, they became leader and right-hand man, but they didn’t actually talk, it was only after they liberated Earth everything started again. They even started to train together. It was like becoming friends again, but always with this strange tint. Lance recalled every time he had thought something and stop dead in his tracks, he remembered how confused he had been the first time he thought Keith was cute, or that he would do anything to see him smile, after some time he stopped considering this thought as weird, with the justification that it was only because he cared about his friend. 

But the truth was that even after he started dating Allura his thoughts never leave Keith, he was in love with Allura, but at the same time he was in constant worry about his friend. He wondered if things would have been different, because after Keith left, he became closer to Allura and maybe that was the moment his feeling set, he had fallen completely for her, when the other hadn’t been there. He begun to think that maybe he had had some feelings for Keith back then, he even considered the option of maybe being interested in to different persons at the same time, maybe that’s why he had wanted to get close to both of them, so he could decide which one was the one his heart truly desired. 

He had loved Allura, he still loves her, but maybe he could start looking other ways, maybe it was what she would have wanted for him to be happy, to find someone else. Maybe he could try, when they got home, he could hang out more often with Keith, seeing how thing evolve, if his old feeling returned, of if they had never leave, maybe even new feeling could flourish. He already knew he cared for him in a special way, but he wanted to take everything slow, he didn’t want to hurt Keith because he was confused. Keith deserved someone that love him entirely not the mess he was right now, but maybe, someday… He smiled at the idea.

“Open the damn door” He had been so focused in his thought that he hadn’t heard the loud banging at the door.  
Akira entered the room, he seemed completely overwhelmed and terrified, he wanted to run, but he knew he couldn’t leave Lance there, because of guilt of responsibility, Lance wasn’t sure. So, he decided to try something stupid, because apparently, he wasn’t a good thinker in intense emotional situations. He tried to carry Lance.   
Lance was astonished, one moment he was trying to stand with Akria’s help and the next one Leandro was there, saying something about Akira being an idiot and an inconsiderate bastard. His double was furious, and Akria just looked at him without doing anything, it was like if he couldn’t decide if it was best to run, hide or stay there, he also looked like he didn’t believe Leandro was there, like he was some sort of angry apparition. His double was talking but he wasn’t paying attention to that, because he was more focused in covering his ears to prevent them to be damaged by his double screams.

“How could you hide that from me!?” Lance managed to hear that part, and saw that Akira was pale, like is something the other had say he wasn’t supposed to know it. Lance stood awkward by the wall, he had accomplished to get up by his own and he kind of wanted to leave, it seemed like a really personal conversation.  
“I knew what you would say! I don’t care, you are more important than anything else!” After recovered of his initial shock Akira enter in full discussion mode. Lance felt some familiarity in the discussion, he smiled, Allura were the same, always thinking about everything except herself. He found really calming he could smile thinking of her, a real smile.  
“In which universe one life is more important that thousands!?” Lance started to wonder if he could leave.  
“I already told you, I don’t care! I’m not going to let you die, no matter what” He wondered if he should intervene or something. But he was also curious, what about his double dying?   
“Akira! Open your eyes, I’m not that important, if we weren’t stuck in this war, we wouldn’t even be together” Akira took a step back, like if the words had physically hurt him.  
“What… Why are you saying that?” Leandro laughed, and it sounded faked and with self-deprecation. He didn’t like that sound at all.  
“Are you serious? Look at you, you are amazing, you are handsome, a good fighter, and excellent leader, I’m nothing compared to you, but we are together because I’m the only one, isn’t it? When I confessed you left, and you didn’t find something better, hell something else, that’s why you came back no? Because I was better than nothing.” Lance used to wonder the same, if Allura had really love him because he was who he was, or because she decided that she should experience a different type of love, if she had used him to fill the hole Lotor had left. Now he knew he had been wrong, that yes, maybe Allura didn’t love him the same way he did, but she felt something real, she didn’t use him or just be with him because there was no other option.  
“Have you always believed that?” Akira seemed to be trying really hard to not cry.   
“Of course,” Leandro was being sincere, Lance could see it. But he also knew he was exaggerating things, there was no way he felt like that, he had seen him, he was in love and happy, he didn’t know why he was doing this. Tears started to run through Akira’s cheek.  
“I’m sorry…”  
“What?” Lance accepted his destiny, at stared at the conversation that was happening in front of him without any shame.  
“I never thought how what I did make you feel, I was scared when you confessed, I a mess and I didn’t want to hurt you, so I thought that it was the best if I walked away… but I couldn’t stop thinking about you, and I knew I was being selfish but I wanted to be with you… I thought I could… But I was wrong. I ended up hurting you.” Akira looked regretful and his double was really shocked.  
“What are you talking about? You did nothing wrong!”   
“Leandro, you were in a relationship when you thought you were a last resource, that’s not right, you should be… with someone that makes you feel like you are the only one, that no matter how many people are in the world or in other world you are the one they want.” Lance was starting get nervous, he felt like he was watching a show where the main paring was about to break up, and he didn’t want that. They were good to each other, he had seen that, he had heard Leandro’s happy rambling about how amazing Akira was and how he felt about being loved, and he had seen the way Akira always looked at him, how he trusted him and cherished him, how he seemed to be the only one to fully comprehend him.   
“I was…?” Now it was Leandro’s turn to look hurt.  
“I… you… can’t possible want to be with someone like me, I’m not even who you thought I was, I failed to make you see the way I feel, the way I see you.” Lance felt something in his hand, he watched in awe the Blue bayard in his hand.  
“Wait, wait… I came here to make you forget about me, saying I was not enough… How you ended thinking you are not enough for me? And I don’t care about the altean stuff you are still you and always going to be you” Lance felt like jumping when Blue presence entered his mind, she was not far, he also felt Red, and by how she was feeling, she coming directly at him at an amazing speed, that only she could make.  
“I love you, and I’m sorry if I don’t demonstrate it all the time, is hard for me to show everything so openly…” Leandro took a few steps so he could be just in front of Akira.  
“I know that you do… you demonstrate without words Akira, that’s one of the lot of things I love about you… But what you did… for me… I can help but feel like I’m stopping you”  
“You never do that, I should have told you what had happened, but I was scared, I knew that you would say it didn’t matter, that we had a mission, but… I can’t stand the thought of losing you” He started to slip to the door, this looked like it was about to become a very endearing reconciliation, and he decided that his double and his boyfriend needed some privacy.  
“Akira…”  
“No, I can’t I know there has to be another way, and if there is no other way, I would make one, I don’t care what I have to do” He was being really stubborn but Lance understood him, he only had some more meters between him and the door.  
“Okay, okay…” His double started to say “We will search for another way, but you have to promises me if we don’t find one or be able to create one, you will do what is best for all, even if that means to let me go” Lance was practically at the door, but he wanted to hear Akira’s answer”  
“I won’t promise you that, I would never stop looking, never stop trying” His double didn’t seem very pleased with the response.   
“I knew you would say that…” They looked at each other’s eyes “But until we are certain that there is no other way, can I kiss you?” Apparently, they decided that they would resume their conversation in the future, right now they looked like two lovers that hadn’t see each other in forever, and the only thing that wanted was to be with the other.  
“Yes”

He got to the door just before the kisses started to be to intimate, he got out in time to see a very fast lion approach. He stood there, he wasn’t really sure of what he was feeling, he didn’t know if it was because whatever pain quillers he was in, but he stayed there, his back resting in the outside of the shack. He always asked himself why seeing basically him and Keith made out the other day and right now hadn’t disturbing him in any way, not even when he saw the flashes to the all that other realities, maybe he knew deep in his heart that it was possible. He had begging to thought that maybe that his reality was one of those realities, he just needed to make sure the other felt the way he thought.  
“Lance!” Was Keith’s first word once he stepped out of Red, he was worried and at the same time relieved, he could see that.  
“My knight in shinny armour, have you come to rescue me?” He saw Keith blush and wondered how could he never saw that before, it was painfully obvious. The look suited him.  
“I’m… I’m not wearing my armour” Lance laughed, but didn’t move, he was pretty sure that trying that would end bad. He became conscious that he was still hurt in that moment.   
“I notice it” He stayed there looking at Keith with a smile, while the other seemed so uncertain, like if he didn’t know what to do next.  
“Are you… are you okay?” Keith was playing with his hair, that had some strands white now that he paid attention…   
“I think… I’m high? I have this nasty wound in my side, but I don’t feel it and I’m not sure that’s good” He saw Keith shock, he approached at him fast, but stop right in front of him, it was evident that his intention had been checking the wound.  
“Should I?” He eased Keith internal turmoil, and he lifted his shirt. “Shit, it looks really bad” Keith was examining it the wound, seeing in any angle possible.   
“Are you still checking the wound or something else caught your attention?” Lance knew that he was probably being a little cruel, but he still couldn’t really accept the idea that Keith had feelings for him, so he was testing the waters, just a little to know if he hadn’t imagined things. When Keith jumped and took a step back his face flaring red, he knew that he hadn’t see anything that wasn’t there.  
“No, I mean… the wound, is not that bad, it seems that someone had been taken care of it” When his leader attempted to move, he took his hand deliberately.   
“You should probably not go there” He could see Keith confusion, and the fact that his hand was squishing nervously his, give him a clue that he had gone a little too far.  
“And why I shouldn’t?” He didn’t want Keith to think he was a douchebag or some horrible human being that liked to play with other people emotions.  
“I’m pretty sure our doubles are making out.” He let go his hand, and felt bad when he saw disappointment in the other eyes.

After that, everything went so fast, he was suddenly on the ground with an overexcited gremlin hugging him, he was happy to see everybody, and tried to comfort them, but he was still hurt, and Pidge’s and Hunk’s hugs were making him more and more aware of the wound. He felt dizzy, and miss big part of the conversation, he picked up something like they were going to disappear if they didn’t leave soon. When Keith said the plan was to form Votlron, he knew he could do it, he felt his leader look in him, and nodded in his direction, he could do that. And after that he would talk to Keith.   
Entering Blue give him a reassuring sensation, he felt that she was apologizing, he was still hurt because of what she did, not because of what she showed him, just because she did it without his consent, he wouldn’t have mind it actually, but he still felt a little bit betrayed by Blue. When he started the engines, we knew this would be the last time he piloted her, he felt Red wave of approval. He let go of everything when they started to form Voltron, and focused on only doing that, it was easier than he thought, just thinking that his friends need him had been enough.

They flew all the way to the Garrison, when they had a tremendous fight, with Blue he made sure the altean battle ships never take off, they were totally winning, this reality had never faced Voltron, their weapons were too weak for them, maybe that the point when they got overconfident. They spent more time, trying to erased every altean weapon and ship in the facility.   
“I think that’s enough, that should help the rebellion a lot” Keith said.  
“Al right, then we just need to open go home” Pidge said, and they all started to move, Lance found interesting how being again the leg was so strange, he had some trouble at first, but he overcome them quick.  
They open a fissure, and they started to go through it, and the he felt like something run over him, he heard his teammates and himself scream with pain. He was sure if he had ever struck by a lighting that would be the feeling. He found himself in free fall, he felt the ground before even see it.  
“What the fuck just happened?” He heard Keith said, but his voice sounded kind of strange.   
“Why are we not in our lions?” Hunk asked.  
“That was the strangest thing that ever happened to me” Lance felt someone help him got up, and he discovered it was Leandro. And the one that just talked was Katie.  
“Why are you guys here?” He heard Shiro asked directly as his double.  
“Pidge?” Keith asked.   
“It appears that in the moment we tried to cross we might threaten this reality stability, but as you can see, we are us again, so we should be able to cross without any problem” Keith’s hair was again purely black as it should be.

But as everything in their lives, nothing could be that easy. The fissure was still there, they only had to pass through it, they could see their lions in the other side, apparently, they had exploded a part of their own Garrison, and Lance could see people on the other side, they were looking at the fissure with scared face, he recognised Veronica in the distance, his sister was there. But as he was saying, things were never easy, because in that specific moment, Hira showed up.  
“Magnificent, this portal is stable, now my tropes can invade your reality, and if I end you now no one would be able to protect that reality” Lance never understood the need of villains to say their plans before effectuate them, but he wasn’t complaining in that moment.   
“We need to go now, only that way the portal will close!” Pidge screamed.  
“Go, will cover you” Leandro said, Lance didn’t want to leave them there with that crazy altean, but he had to have faith in them.  
Shiro was the first one to reach the fissure, Hunk and Pidge right behind him, Lance and Keith were the last ones, the sound of battle filled the space, he could hear their doubles scream and shot, suddenly Hira fall, and an unstable piece of the roof drop on her, she died instantly. The last thing Lance hear of the other dimension was a gun shot and Akira’s horrified scream. 

“No!” Keith turn but the fissure was gone, Lance stared at the empty space, did… did his double…? An object caught his attention, it was one of that damn altean spheres, and if something had taught him the ‘not rover’ device, was when something was about to explode. He knew that probably just by screaming or pointing at the thing Keith would new what he had to do, but he wasn’t exactly thinking. He grabbed Keith’s arm, and drag him towards him, he saw the others confusion when he embraced him and rotated him. Lance felt the fire in his back, the pain of burns and cuts, he also felt when the structure they were in started to crumble, he knew he should probably be more careful, that Keith was a though guy, that probably falling a couple of meters would nothing to him, but he still took the impact, Keith fall directly in him.  
“Lance!” He heard Keith’s shortness of breath, Lance felt his head hurt.  
“I’m so tired of this” He felt dizziness, and he knew he was about to black out again.  
“Lance no, don’t close your eyes” He wanted to tell Keith he believed he had already close them “Stay with me Lance”   
“I need to talk… with you” He tried to stay awake, because this time he felt he had to or otherwise…  
“I need to tell you something too, but don’t waste your energy in that, focus on staying awake” He could hear that someone was bringing help, he could distinguish his sister voice in the distance.  
“I can’t… be there when I woke up, please?” He really wanted to talk with Keith.  
“Lance! Lance please don’t! I love you” He wanted to tell him he knew that, but he blacked out before he could do anything.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don’t know when I’m going to have time to write the next chapter (I enter school tomorrow) but the next chapter is definitely the last one. I hope you liked the story so far… and stay here to see how all this end.  
> Thank you for reading! n.n


	13. Into the Night

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith wants to be with Lance, is that possible in the end? What does Lance want?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the last chapter (which I did instead of doing homework because I’m a very responsible person). I kind of… I don’t know have some mixed feelings, because this doesn’t have the ending that probably I thought in the beginning. And I kind believe I actually wrote 74 pages in word. But anyway a few recommendations  
> “ _Only text_ ” Not the rest <\- Someone in the other line of a call  
> “ _All text” And the rest_ <-Keith’s memories.
> 
> P.S: I kind of put a lot of characters in this and gave them an ending because we didn't know what happened to them (or if we did I don't remember at the moment)

Into the Night

_“Hey Keith, this is test and hopefully a message, I’m out of hospital… and well you are somewhere in space, and yeah… Is that okay Matt?”  
“It’s perfect”_

Keith watched the message again and again, he was in space very far away from he wanted to be, but there had not been another choice, the galra were fragmented and confused… and apparently his mom had thought he could help with that. 

_Moments before the fissure closed Keith had heard the most anguish sound in his life, he had seen Hira die and he only could guess what had happened after that. He tried to turn around and help but it was too late, in front of him, only the destroyed Garrison stood. He wasn’t even starting to process what just had happened, when he felt someone drag him, in a moment Lance was embracing him, he was shocked, was he so happy that they had manage to get home? He felt Lance warm body against his, and he enjoyed the sensation for very little time. He was falling and Lance was still holding him, he should have done something but his brain didn’t seem to catch up with the situation, he heard something crack and a painful groan. Finally, he took notice of the situation._  
“Lance!” Lance was under him, and a horrible pool of blood was forming. He wanted to scream, to complain, to ask him what he was thinking.  
“I’m so tired of this” Lance was looking at his general direction but didn’t seem to be actually looking at him, he looked tired, and seemed to be fighting to stay awake.  
“Lance no, don’t close your eyes” He grabbed his head, but didn’t move it, he couldn’t lose Lance, not like this, but he wasn’t reacting, he didn’t notice, the way his hands supported his face.  
“I need to talk… with you” In any other moment, he probably would be happy or anxious about Lance wanting to talk with him, but right now he knew that all that effort he was putting on talking was dangerous, he needed to focus on staying awake. He heard screams and shouts, someone must have seen Lance and was bringing help, that was good, how hadn’t he thought about that? He had just stayed there without actually helping.  
“I need to tell you something too, but don’t waste your energy in that, focus on staying awake” Lance started to close his eyes and Keith started to feel cold, this couldn’t be happening, they had managed to come home after all, Lance needed to live, he had people who cared about him.  
“I can’t… be there when I woke up, please?” His emotions mixed, he was terrified when Lance said he couldn’t stay awake, but he had also hope, Lance believed he would wake up, and he wanted him to be there when that happened, he clung into that, but he was starting to feel really cold, his normal brown skin was becoming a little grey.  
“Lance! Lance please don’t! I love you” He felt stupid saying that, that wasn’t what Lance needed, he needed help not a broken teammate confessing. He was about to collapse when Keith felt some fur around them, in a blink they were in the hospital, nurses and doctors took Lance away and the last he saw was Lance in a hospital gurney disappearing behind a door. 

“Keith” He was petting Cosmo, he had accepted the name long time ago, and it suit him somehow, he still hoped someday he will reveal his name, but for now Cosmo was a good name.  
“Acxa” He knew why she was there but his answer was still the same.  
“You are not even thinking about it” She wasn’t annoyed, she was just pointing out a fact.  
“Because there is nothing to think, I will not now, not never be a galran emperor”   
“It could be beneficial… you need to at least think in what you will say to the galra, you can’t just say you don’t want to do it because you don’t want to. You need to give an explanation” They weren’t exactly friends, but they were getting there, she was a fine warrior, but she was cold and distant sometimes, like she didn’t exactly could trust anyone, he didn’t blame her.  
“You aren’t going to insist this time?” He got up, and Cosmo too.  
“As I said before I respect your choice… I...” She couldn’t looking him in the eyes, when she was about to say something important or personal, but he knew that when she did it he was going to be looking right back at her “I just want you to know that I still believe that I’m supposed to be with you, not matter what had happened my path always took me to you… and I would like to consider me in any of your plans, I will support you”  
“I will Acxa, thank you” He wasn’t exactly accostum to that part of Acxa, but it didn’t bother him, he knew he could count of her as an ally, and he was going to need that when he rejected the galran propupose.

_“Keith” He was really surprised to see Acxa there “I heard Veronica’s brother was here”_  
“Your friend Veronica?” She seemed a little annoyed with the comment, but Keith could help it, he had seen how Veronica had pressed her, forcing her to stop seeing everybody as a threat, the McLain had a special way to make people feel appreciated, and wanted.   
“Yes, her” Lance was in bed, unconscious, he had one of those tubes that helped people breath, he almost didn’t make it, and right now the doctors weren’t sure if was going to wake up or not. He wanted to believed he would do it. “How is he”  
“The same… Hunk said he believed something had changed when he visited him this morning, but I think he is just as desperate as everyone else” He should have appreciated more the healing pods, that thing did wonders, but when they started to do altean tech they focused only in war things… he wished they had focused in healing stuff too.  
“I came here to tell you something, I hear Krolia and Kolivan talking, they want you to take the control of the galra” 

Keith watched the message again, it was from three months ago, he had received a lot more after that first one, from Hunk, Pidge, the MFE figthers, the Holt’s, and hundreds from Shiro. But only a few from Lance, they were basically him asking him how he was or how things in space where going, they were always too short and too impersonal, he always answered anyway, he wanted to ask why Lance was acting like that but he never did it.  
He froze when he felt a vibration by his side, he took the altean tablet form his belt, the message said ‘incoming call’ but he didn’t know who might been calling him, he answered anyway, he was rewarded with Lance face.  
“ _Is this thing working_?” He was looking at someone off screen.  
“ _I think so…_ ” He heard Pidge's voice in the distant.  
“Lance?” He asked.  
“ _Oh, never mind is working! Hey Keith can you see me correctly?_ ” Lance started to make a lot of face and move around, the image was clear, and the voice coincided with the image.  
“Yes, I can, how can this be possible? You are galaxies away” He was astonished, Lance looked really well, his skin was glowing again, and his smile was shining, the last time he had see him, he was inert in a hospital bed.  
“ _Because gremlin and his brother are awesome!_ ” He heard and offended ‘hey!’ “ _Matt told some of his friends in the rebellion to help him put some wormhole devices around this galaxy and other galaxies, and now the signal travels to one of these devices and then a wormhole is opened and the signal goes out in another part of the universe! Is awesome! Don’t ask me how this works… because I really don’t know, but it’s really cool isn’t it?_ ” He felt like crying, Lance was okay and happy and rambling as always.   
“Yeah, it’s pretty cool…” He wanted to be there with him, so they could talk and he could appropriately confess because that’s what he wanted to do, he wanted Lance to know, after almost losing him, he decided he didn’t care if his feeling weren’t reciprocated, he will deal with that, even if things became a little awkward at first he wanted Lance to know, he needed him to know.  
“ _So, what’s up mullet? How’s space? Ready to be a galra emperor?_ ” He smiled, because only Lance could take that as a normal and easy conversation. He was so relaxed.

_He wanted to leave in that instant._  
“I can’t do that mom!” He was furious.  
“Keith understand that this isn’t easy, but the galra had always had a leader to follow, without one, chaos would spread to the universe.” He couldn’t leave, Earth wasn’t recovered yet, and Lance was still in the hospital, he had to be there when he woke up, he had promised that to himself.  
“Then why don’t you go? Or Kolivan? You are much more qualified than me!” He exclaimed, and he could see he was hurting his mother by screaming, but she couldn’t ask him to do that.  
“The galra still resent the Blade of Marmora. All the galra respect you, you are the leader of Voltron, you defeated Haggar and bring peace to the universe, you save reality”  
“I didn’t do that by my own, I had a team, and one of them is gone and the other is in the hospital, I can’t just abandon hi- them” He needed to be there, to see how Hunk started his pacifist cooking emporium, to talk to Shiro about how the atlas crew wanted to help Earth, to hear Pidge talking about major scientific discoveries, and mostly he needed to be there with Lance.  
“You need to think of what’s best, leaving hurts and I understand, but if we don’t do something, galran wars for power will end up hurting a lot of people, it could even endanger your friends.” She was cheating, she knew how much he cared about his friends, he couldn’t stand the thought of them being hurt again.  
He hated himself when he decided to leave. Shiro told him he was being really brave and hug him, Hunk and Pidge had looking at him with this reproving look but also with sadness and understanding. They had promised him they would find a way to inform him when Lance woke up. 

After that day, Lance started to call him often, sometimes even twice a day, the talked about everything and anything, sometimes the even wonder what had happened to their doubles, if they were okay, the more the talked the more he ended up learning about Lance, what he was planning to do, apparently he wanted to still flying, but maybe not so far, he had really missed his family, he learn about his family and Earth, in return Keith told him things about his past, about how the galra were taking his answer, how it was being again in space, how he missed him. They sometimes talked about what had happened, he saw Lance cry a couple of time, and his heart hurt, but as time passed, he started to look heal, he didn’t lose his smile when he talked about her.  
Nine months after, he returned to Earth, the Garrison did a huge party for that, and he had to talk with a lot of people he wanted to see his friends first, but Hunk was in space, Shiro in japan doing some rebuilding, and Pidge had been in his laboratory for two days in a row, Matt told him he should probably wait until tomorrow to see her. And Lance, he was with his family, but he told him he would arrive tomorrow.  
“Coran told me we should go to Altea, that everything was wonderful and he had something to show us” Hunk said once they were all together.  
“I think I could use some fresh air; Chip’s building is going well but I think it might not be too healthy to stay in the laboratory for some much time” She had bags under her eyes.  
“Pidge talking about working too much, who would have thought this day will arrive?” Lance joked and she punched him in the arm.  
“I probably use a change of scenario, I can’t believe I miss space” Shiro looked at the sky, he looked better, the constant tiredness was slowly fading, and he smiled more often.  
“Then we should probably go”  
The travel to Altea was tranquil, they were all in Red, with Lance piloting her, Keith could still hear her, she was happy to be used again, they had neglected the lions a little, principally because the universe wasn’t in immediate danger anymore, and mostly because Blue was still without a pilot. He had taken Black to his garla excursion, and he knew Pidge sometimes used Green to go to the new Olkarion, he wasn’t sure if Hunk still used Yellow. When they arrived, the first the saw was the immense statue. 

_Veronica was there, she had come to tell him to go home, that she was going to take the night shift. The doctors had said that it was important that Lance had someone by his side in case he woke up he didn’t feel scared, because he was probably going to be very disorientated._  
“I can stay tonight” He told her.  
“You leave tomorrow, don’t you?” He really didn’t want to but what other choice did he had?  
“Yeah…” He stared at Lance face, he was hoping he woke up before he left “He wanted to talk to me, he told me to be here when he woke up”  
“My silly brother, he can’t retain you here when he is unconscious” Veronica was smiling, but he could see a deep sadness in her.  
“I’m sorry I should probably have done something, if I had seen that bomb… he wouldn’t be… like this” He tortured himself all the time with that thought, he should have done something.  
“You brought him back, all back” Veronica sit in Lance bed, and softly she brushed her brother’s hair “When the portal closed, and you didn’t come back we were crushed, Slav and Sam told us the reality was save, but you weren’t anywhere, we search for you… But you weren’t anywhere, the crew started to lose hope, they started to believed you were gone, but Coran, the Holt’s, myself, even the MFE fighters and Slav refused to believe that… So, when we got back home, we were devastated. But then, something happened, a miracle I would like to say… You made such and entrance, blowing the Garrison, but you were here, I saw Matt face when he saw the green lion, and I knew I was making the same face…” She started to cry, but kept her smile “You came back, and now everything will slowly be okay”  
“I… I’m sorry anyway” He meant it  
“Don’t be, I know Lance, he always does the impossible for the people he cares about… Even if that put him in risk, but he is strong he will make it and when he does, you will be able to talk to him” She smiled at him. “You like him, don’t you?”  
“Yes, yes I do” He found surprising how fast he answered.  
“He talked a lot about you, when he was in the Garrison, he was like obsessed with you, and when he returned to Earth, he was still talking about you, but in a different way, his bad feeling where gone, and it only last caring and admiration.” She was looking at him. Keith didn’t now what got into him in that moment but he started talking.  
“It’s not fair, Allura was supposed to be here, he was so happy with her, I would gladly change places with her if that meant never saw him… saw him…” He couldn’t even describe how Lance had been, it was beyond sad.  
“Come here, I know you are not accustomed to physical contact but you need a hug” He let Veronica embrace him “Never let my brother hear you saying that, he might be completely crushed by Allura’s death, but he risked his life for yours, so he thinks you are also important. And just give him time, you might discover how strong he is”  
“I already know” 

“Lance…” Hunk started, voicing everyone’s concern.   
“She looks beautiful, doesn’t she?” Lance was smiling, an authentic smile, all the sadness and sorrow were gone.   
“Yeah, she does” Shiro answered.  
“Why is she the only one that gets a statue? We all fight” Pidge commented, and by a moment Keith thought she had gone too far. But he relaxed when he heard Lance laugh.  
“We should probably demand our own statues” Lance said.  
They chatted and laughed, Coran was so happy to see them. They eat, and talked more, the got an amazing tour from Coran through all Altea, they checked on the alteans, and found out that Romelle was disseminating the voice to all the universe that the alteans live, most of them started to work as ambassadors. They sometimes got help of the MFE fighters, Rizavi and Kinkade were making a documentary of altean live, this time just as Kinkade wanted… mostly. James surprisingly had decided to stay as a teacher in the Garrison, he was kind of aspiring to be Iverson replacement or something and Ina was the only one that follow her original carrier. When it was night, Hunk, Pidge and Shiro retired, but Lance had wanted to see the stars, and Keith joined him.  
“What a view” Lance lay in the grass, and Keith followed him.  
“Yes” Was the only thing he could said, he was nervous, he hadn’t been physically alone with Lance in almost a year.  
“Hey… Keith, we still had a talk pending” He gulped, but turn around, just to see that Lance was already looking at him.  
“I… yes… I believe we do” He felt a blush spread in his cheeks, he felt even more embarrassed when he tired to make it go away, Lance was only looking at him.  
“I have an answer” Keith didn’t know what the other was talking about.  
“About?” He was genuinely curious.  
“Don’t tell me that you forgot it?” He had zero clue of what was Lance talking about, when the other sit, the only thing he could thought of doing was imitate him. “Really mullet, really? That’s totally pay off for the bonding moment”  
“You really don’t remember that?” He asked.  
“Of course, I remember! Not really clear but yes, I remember” Keith felt an indescribable joy, that had been a very important moment for him, and he was glad Lance remembered it.  
“Really?” He needed to be sure.  
“Yes, damn it, how did we ended talking about this?”   
Lance rolled his eyes but he was smiling, and Keith drawn in the view, Lance blue eyes, shinning under the stars, his smile, the way he seemed relaxed, he focused principally in his face, but he couldn’t help starting to note more details, he was more muscular, more tan, and even if he didn’t believe it, he was more handsome, his altean marks enchased his eyes instead of competing for attention. Lance was a beautiful.  
“You still with me? Or did you lose in my eyes?” Keith swore he couldn’t be more red.  
“Was that an… an inverted pick up line?” He didn’t know what to do, he had been caught staring. He avoided eye contact.  
“Because I definitely lost in yours” He had to look at Lance just to see is he was joking, but Lance expression was sincere.  
“Lance?” He tried to stop the rapid beat of his heart, the way his gut felt, like he was flying. He knew he shouldn’t rise his hopes, but after all, the memories of that other reality when he could be with Lance, the quick flashes, he knew it was possible.  
“I really like you Keith and I want to go out with you…” Lance took his hand and Keith’s brain stopped functionating “I know that you have been probably waiting a lot of time… or that maybe your feeling had changed but I want you to know” Keith didn’t know what to do, his thoughts were a mess, he was shocked. When Lance started to remove his hand, he prevented it.  
“I would love to… you know… go out… go out with you” He stood there “I love you Lance”   
“Keith…” Lance raised his other hand and caressed his cheek “Is this okay?”  
He knew what Lance was referring, they confession had been different, Lance really liked him when Keith loved him. But Keith didn’t care, he knew, he had seen that their feeling could reach the same point in time. And he knew that Lance wouldn’t being proposing this if he wasn’t sure of the same thing. With his free hand he dragged Lance, he looked straight into his eyes, he saw Lance smile, a little smile, pure and sincere. They kissed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aggg!!! I don’t know I don’t know, I kind of liked the end but not quite? Like I would really like to add more chapters, but it has been enough, I still feel like it was a little rushed, but I don't know (also I’m school so I will be writing… more like I won’t be writing at all). I hope you liked the end, it’s kind of open, they still had a lot to figure out, but it’s a start.  
> The title is inspired in the son “Into the night” from Nero, I think it describes how I felt this relationship in the end.  
> Anyway, thank you for reading, I really hope you enjoy this story n.n

**Author's Note:**

> So that's the beginning, I'm not sure if I'm going to finish it (because I don't even know if any of this makes any sense) Feedback is really appreciated, and coments, and basically everything.  
> Thanks for reading!


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